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O S. Brigits Countrey, Parents, Birth, and many vertues and especially
of her charithy to the poore

Abridged out of what Cogitosus her owne nepheu, and Ioannes
Capgravivs have written...

1625

1.The glorious virgin S. Brigit, who descended of the ancient, and honorable
family of Etech in the kingdom of Ireland, was born at Fochart, a village
a mile distant from Dundalke in the couhtry of Louth. Her father was a
noble man of Leinster named Dubacus, who falling in love with a handmaid
of his named Brocseca, a wiman indued with singular beauty, and admirable
colines, he got her with child of this sacred virgin, which when his own
wife perceive,being in great trouble thereat and taking the matter very
greefuly, she said unto him; cast out this handmayd fearing her posterity
surpasse mine. Dubtacus constrained through his wives importunty mand sale
of her to a certain Magitian, in whose house falling in travaile, she was
safe delivered of the holy child; such as were present at her birth, saw
the cloath wherewith her tender head was covered, to burne with a flame
of fire, wherupon hastning to quench it, they found no fire at all.

2. So much did the holy virgin loath to feed of the Magitians
meats, that she was constrayned everyd day to cast up what she ate. The
Magitian considering attentitivly the cause thereof, said: I am unclean
and this holy virgin (full of the spirit of God) cannot taste of my meat,
choosing out therefore a white melch cow, he bestowed it upon her to live
by her milk. The holy virgin increased in vertue no less than in years;for
she exceled in all kinds of holy conversation and sanctity of life and
became very conspicuous for her modeste harithy and temperence, but above
all her charity to the poore is most remarkable.

3.The sacred virgin being deputed by the Magitian to keepe his cowes,gave
all the butter and milk she chould gather to relieve the present wants,
and necessities of the poore. When the Magitian saw but a small quantitiy
of butter in a great vessel, wherin the butter was to be kept, he cahfed
extremely. The Saint seeing what passion he was in, offered her pure prayers
up to God, and so by divine bertue, filled the vessell with butter even
up to the top: wherat the Magitian was so much astonished and moved, that
he believed in Christ, settting both her and her mother at liberty.

4. In regard she gave to the poore, all whatsoever she could lay handes
upon, and among other things, her Fathers sword he proposed to sell her
for which end bringing her where the King was. He requested him that he
would be pleased to by his daughter. Th whom the Kinge spoke in this manner
what made you to give away your fathers sword to the poore man? To whome
she answered I have given it to Christ, and sir if my God did aske your
magesty, and my father too of me, I would bestow you both, and whatsoever
eles you have upon him, if it lay in my power. The King turning to her
fater sayd to him; this your daughter is of too great worth to be bought
by me and of farre greater to be sold by yhou, so giving her another to
give to her fathere, he dismissed her.

Of S. Brigites singular chastity and of some miracles wrought in approbation
thereof and also of other stupendious signs....

Chapter II.

1. When this sacred spouse of Christ saw herselfe pressed, and importuned
by her friends to marry, she prayed to God, that he would be pleased to
disfigure her body with some deformity, to this end that men should cease
from making further love unto her; and without delay her eye burst, and
melted in her head; then taking three other maydes in her company, she
repayred to a holy Bishop, called Machella, S. Patricks Disciple, to be
vayled at his handes: the holy Bishop saw a piller of fire appeare over
her head , and contemplating moreover her ernest and ardent love of virginall
integrity, he gave her the holy vayle of chastity: at which time as she
fell prostrate before the venerable Prelate to offer herselfe a holy, cleane
and impolluted host to her heavenly spouse, she touched the alter poste,
which incontinently budded forth a fresh with leaves and so continueth
greene and florishing to this day: Beiong vayled with the sacred cognizance
of chastity, her bursten eye was restored again to perfect health.

2. Against Easter the sacred virgin made beer of one onely measure or
pecke of malt, sending part thereof to eighteen Churches that were round
about, and besides during all the octave, that small quatity sufficed aboundantly,
and served to satisf all those who would, and were desirous to taste thereof.
At the same time a Leaper came to the holy virgin, requesting her to help
him to a cow, but she havin none said to him; Will you that we pray God
to deliver you from your sickness? Who answered, that he preferred his
own before all other guiftes; whereupon she aaving blessed water, sprinkled
the leaper therewith, and immediately he became cleane: in like manner
tow sicke virgins taking water, which the holy Virgin had blessed, recovered
their perfect health.

3.Two blind men being Brittons, or English men by birth with a leaper
who was their guide, came to her Church door, and besought the sacred Virgin
to help them to their bodily health; She intreated them to have patience
a little and to enter into the lodging to refresh their selves, and that
she would in the mean time pray to God in their behalfe; which delay they
took so impatiently , that with great indignation they replied; you heal
the diseased of your own nation but as for us being strangers you neglect
to cure us for Christs sake. The holy virgin receiving this reproach, went
forth unto them, and casting holy water upon them she cleansed the leaper,
and restored the blind men to their sight.

4. A certaine woman brought some apples to the Saint, at which time
there came some leapers to beg alms of her: the said Saint delat these
apples among them. The Woman hearing it, covayed her apples away saying;
I brought those apples for your selfe, and your virgins and not to be given
to leapers; whereat the Saint being not a little offended, she answere:
You have done very ill in hindering us to give almes, therefore your trees
will never more produce any fruit. The woman going forth into her orchard,
which she flef full of apples, found none at all, and so it remayned fruitless
always after.

Of Saint Brigites great austerity, and of many admirable miracles wrought
by her.

.
Chapter III
One night the season being frosty and cold when all had taken themselves
to their rest and were safe asleep, the holy virgin went to a deepe poole,
wherin she stood all night long weeping and praying, firmly purposing with
herself to observe the same custome every night but our deare Saviour out
of the aboundance of his infinite mercy, would not have her to continue
it any longer, for the next night following, she found the poole dry without
any water, and comming to see it the next morning, she saw it as full as
it was before- the same happened to her the second night, which was a sufficient
reason that she forbore that austere exercise of mortification.
2. Upon a time that some venerable Bishops came to seek lodging at
her house she being unprovided of all provision, the divine munificence
relieved her wants by miracle- for thrice in one day did she milke one
cow that she had which yielded so much milke, as the three best cowes would.
Another time a Dog did fawne upon her for meate, the holy virgin, with
whom mercy grew even from her infancy, having nothing but flesh, that was
boiling for some guests that were to come drew it out of the pot, and gave
the doge a piece therof. When the flesh was laid upon the table, it appeared
so entire as if nothing had been cut off, which excited the beholders to
great admiration of the miracle, and verneration of the Saint.
3. The blessed virgin laboured very earnestly to reclaim nine men from
fulfilling their nefarious vow made of killing a man in the kalendes of
July, yet for nothing that she could either say or do would they relent
from their wicked design. Betaking her selfe therefore to prayer for the
desparate wretches loe there appeared before their eyes a figure resembling
to the ful the man whom they intended to kill who they incontinently asayled
with their swords and lances and after as it were insulting by way of triumph
over their slain enemy came back immediately to the Saint with their weapons
all imbrued in blood, where learning the truth of the matter they did pennance
for their cruel intent.
4. Upon a time that a certain farmer came with all his family to celebrate
some soleme feast with Saint Briget he being there his Cowes were stolen
away by thieves who in their way came to a river which they found to swolne
up with water that they could not pass over, tying therefore their garments
and armes to the cowes harness they made them enter into the water but
they returning back with great violence came and ran directly to Saint
Briget's abode and the men being starke naked following them doing afterwards
pennance for their heinous act in the Saints monastery.
5. The holy vergin being once benighted in a spacious field in Meath,
declined to a certain poor woman's ouse with whom she lodged all night,
and albeit the woman received her with great joy, rendering God many thanks
for the happy and safe arrival of the most holy virgin, hyet her poverty
was such that she wanted wherewithall to entertain so worthy a guest but
nonetheless of reverence to theSaint she broke down a frame she used to
weave in boyled therewith the calfe of one only cow which she had. Supper
being ended, and after resting her self all night, the next morning to
the end that the charitable woman should not sustain any dammage or detriment,
by the entertainment or reflection of the Saint, she found another calfe
like her owne with her cow and found likewise a weaving frame in form and
greatness alike to her own that she had burnt.
Chapter IIII
When a certain person tormented with malignant spirit, knew that he
was to be led to Saint Brigit he fell down to the ground saying You shall
not carry me thither. Do you know said they where she lives? Yes said he
and I will not go by any meanes. And when they could not remove him from
the place, they sent for the saint intreating her to come thither when
the Devil saw the sacred virgin comming a fear of being terrifyed he departed
from the man out of their fright.
2. Another obsessed person who by reason of strange fits of fury and
rage, wherewith he was vexed, bred great annoy and trouble to many, was
brought to the Saint,to whome she sayd Preach to me the word of our Savior
Jesus Christ and he answered. O most holy Virgin Brigit, I am compelled
against my will to obey your comandment, saying Love God then ,ad all men
will love thee: Honor God, and all men will honour thee: fear God, and
all men will feare thee, this being said, the devil fled away with a loud
cry.
3. As Saint Brigit sat at the table with a certin vergin whom she had
invited, she saw a Devil sitting hard by her, the other virgin said I would
fayne see him, if it were possible. It is not impossible quoth Saint Brigit
but first sign your eyes, that they may be able to sustaine his sight,
and contemplate his face: having signed her eyes, she saw the enemy in
a most ugly and blacke shape, with a gterrible great head,exhaling forth
at his nostrals smoke, and flames of fire. Speake to us Devil, said Saint
Briget. To whom he answered, O most holy virgin , I cannot speak to you,
neither yet can I contemne your comandments, since you contemne not Godes
holy ordinances and are so affable to his poore and little ones. Wherefore
camest thou hither? said the Blessed Virgin. I remaine with this virgin,
said he and in regard of her slugishness , I have gotten a place in her.
Behold then said she the holy vergin (turning to the other virgin) whom
you have interrayned these many years? And from that day forwards, the
virgin was delivered from the Devil.
4. There assembled together a great multitude of men with oxen and
engines to draw a way a great tree, which was cut down that was to be used
in some building but all in vaine for neither the multitude of men the
strength of the oxen nor yet the variety of engines could prevaile any
thing towards the removing thereof. The men were almost ready to depatrt,
thinking it impossible to stir it out of its place at last by the help
of the Saint Brigets prayers together with her pregnant faith like to a
mustard seed by which faith as our Saviour sayth Mountains are transfered
they carried away that three without the asistance of any human help and
found no difficulty bringing it to the palce whither the Saint appoined
them to carry it.

Of the obedience that unreasonable creatures exhibited to Saint Briget

Chapter V.
One day as the Saint saw Ducks sometimes swimming in the waters, and
other times flying in the air, she commanded them to come to her. They
as if they had been trained up under hujan discipline, flew in great haste
with prompt obedience to the Saint. The blessed virgin touched them gently
and embrased them sweetly, which doing for a pritty space permitted them
after to fly away. Another time a great whild bore being pursued bvery
eaerly came in great haste to Saint Briget's heard of swine she beholding
the boar among her swine gave him her blessing and he remained familiar
and without any fear ever afterward her heard. By this and the other precident
example it is clear and evident that the folwes of the air and beasts of
the earth were subject to her command and obeyed her will and pleasure
as we may further gather from these ensuing acidents.

2. A simple country man comming to the Kinges court, saw there a Fox,
who being taught for that purpose, made the King great recreation with
his many sleightes, and trickes, and thinking it was not tame or familiar,
he killed it in presence of all the multitude, for which being repreended
and cast into fetters, he was brought fast bound to the King, who commanded
that he should be put to death, unles he procured him another Foxe like
unto the former in all conditions, and subtill feates, and that his wife
and children should be made slaves. S. Brigit hearing thereof, prayed very
earnestly to God for the release of the poore man; by and by another Fox
entering into her coach, sat quietly ,and familiarly by her side, whome
when she had presented to the King, and that he saw it to play trickes,
and pranks, and in all thinges to be comformable to the other Fox, his
wrath appeared therewith, he set the poore man at liberty, S. Brigit returning
to her monastery, and the Fox remaining as yet amongst the presse of people,
fled backe againe into his denne : all those who saw what had passed, wondered
much at the miracle, and honoured noe less the Saint by whose meanes it
was wrought.

3. As the sacred Virgin sat with her virgins in her coach, she saw a
man, with his wife, family, and oxen, toyled very much with carrying hevy,
and cumbersome burdens, even in the extreame heat of the sunne, and taking
compassion of them, she gave them her owne coach horse to helpe, and ease
them of their insupportable paynes. In the meane thype she sat downe by
the way side, and spoke to some of her virgins, bidding them to digge
under the adioyning earth, to the end that water might spring forth, where
with such as were drye might quench their thirst. Upon the digging
up of the ground, there gushed out a cleare, and faire river. Within
a little time after, there came a certain Captaine to the place , who hearing
of what S. Brigit had done with the horses, he bestowed upon her wilde,
and madd horses, which became without delay forme and gentle, as if they
had beene alwayes wont to draw a coach. There came leapers sometymes
to Saint Brigit, who begged her coach of her, which she gave them without
delay, and her horses likewise.

4. A certain Queene came to visit S. Brigit, bringing with her many
rich presents,amongst the rest a very fayre silver chayne, which her maydes
took away, hiding it, the Saint bestowing the rest upon the poore.
Not long after when a poore man cried to the Saint for almes, having nothing,
she tooke the chaine, and gave it him. The maydes seeing it, sayd,
you are the cause that we loose all that God sends us, for you give all
to the poore, leaving us poore and needy. To whome she answered,
seeke the chains in the place, where I am wont to pray in the Churche,
and peraduenture you shall find it there: they finding the chayne, showed
it to many, and kept it ever after, as an evident testimony of her sanctimony
and vertue.

How S. Briget protected, and assisted such as invocated her in their
distresse and dangers.

CHAP. VI

Saint Brigit came one time, being intreated thereunto by her father,
to the King saying, let me have your sword for my Father, and release me
one of your slaves. To whome the king answeared, what will you give
me for these two great petitions. She replied, if you will, the life
everlasting and that your seed shall reign for e ver after you.
The king answeared againe; I covet not a life, which I doe not see, neither
am i sollcitous in behalfe of my children, that shall live after me: two
otherr thinges I desire, and covet, the first is, that I may enjoy this
life, which I love; and the second is, that in all places and conflictes,
I get the upper hand over mine enemies. These two thinges, said the
Blessed virgin, shall be granted you. Not long after, with a few
in his company, he went to fight with a great multitude, and invocating
S. Brigits helpe nad assistance, he saw her goe before him, and a
piller of fire to burne all vpeuen to the skies, soe the King having defeated
his ennemies, he returned homewardes, magnifying the glory, and the name
of the most sacred virgin.

2. A virgin that suffreed shipwracke by invocating S. Brigetts helpe,
walked drie foote, upon the liquid waves, escaping by that meanes the danger
of death. Some of Saint Brigitts maydes having received from a certaine
rich man, many measures of meale, could not passe over a water that was
in the way, being therefore destitute of all humane helpe, and assistance,
they invocated the powerfull suffrages of their most holy mistris, and
they were suddainly transported to the further side. A man that prohibited
S. Brigits coach to passe through his feildes, and stroake at her horses,
fell downe to the ground, and yeilded up his ghost suddainly.

3. A gentleman who was in the countryu, loved dishonestly a certaine
woman and contriving with himself how to compasse his filthy delights,
he gave her in custody a rich silver pynne, which he stole away privily
at unawaeres from her, and cast it into the sea, thinking that when
she could not restore it, she should become his slave, and so should glut
his wanton desires: all which wicked plot he put in practise, neither could
he be contented otherwise, then either by getting againe the silver pin,
or by her bondage. The chast woman being driven to this pinche, fled
to S. Brigit, as to a cittie of refuge. As the holy virgin was musing with
her selfe what to doe in this matter, behold one brought home fish taken
out of the neighbour river, and they unbowelling the fishes, the silver
pin was found in one of their bellies, so brining the pin with her, she
went to the assembly, where the matter was to be determined, where she
did show the pin, and it being knowne by many that saw it, to be the selfe
same he cast into the sea, she freed the vertuous woman from her cruell
tyrants handes, who afterwardes acknowledging his fault, and guiltines,
submitted himselfe to S. Brigits pleasure, who having wrought this great
miracle, returned backe againe to her monastery.

4. It fell out that the King called together an assembly of his
subjectes, to make a borade and fayre h igh waye in a deep and impassible
marsh, through which a great river ranne. The people meeting
by their family, and kindreds, they divided the worke, alloting to every
family his own share of that laborious taske, that part wher the
river ran was most difficult, and fell to one of the families, who being
potent and strong forced S. Brigits kinsefolkes being weaker to change
with them. They in this their distresse, falling prostrate before
the Saint, bemoaned their worng to her. To whome she answeared, Departe
in peace, it is the will of God, that the river passe from that place,
where you are put to such heavy workes, to the other which they have made
choice of. The next morning, when the multitude rose to begin the
work, the river was found to have left its ancient channel, where
S. Brigits family was constrayned to worke, and to be transfered
into the part of the potent, and proude men, who unjustly oppressed the
weaker company : in proofe whereof, the ancient channell where the river
tooke its course in former tymes, appeares drye without any waters to this
very day.

Of many miraculous cures, wrought by gthe merits, and interssion
of the Saint.CHAP. VII

The sacred virgin having delivered many leapers, cripples, and obsessed
persons, from their infirmities, there came two leapers with teares in
their eyes, begin the cure of their disease. The the Saint praying
and blessing water, she commanded them to washe one another in that water.
One being washed by his companion, became cleane: to whome the Saint said,
wash now your fellow; who seeing himselfe cleane, and boasting of his health,
would not touch the others ulcers, which pride of his God did chastice,
for immediately after he said: I feele sparkles of fire upon my shoulders,
and instantly all his body ( his companion being cleansed) was covered
over with leprosy.

2. A certaine woman commiting of devotion, to visit S. Vrigit, brought
her daughter with her, who was dumbe. S.Brigit seeing the yong mayden,
said unto her. Are you content to be a virgin? (but not knowing that
she was dumbe) The maid answeared incontinently, I will willing do,
what you will command me, and so dedicating her virginity to God.
she to her dying day remayned most elequent. A blind virgin named
Daria, spoake to S. brigit saying. Blesse mine eyes, to the end that
I may see the world according unto my desire: her eyes being opened without
delay, she sad, shut mine eyes againe, for the more that one is a bsent
from the world, so much the nearer, is that party to god, then S. Brigit
shut her eyes as she requested.

3. One of Saint Brigits, virgins burnt in the concupiseence of a certaine
man, to whome she promised to steale forth in in the night: after Saint
Brigit betooke her to her rest, the virgin rose according to her promise,
being inflamed with the fire of sesuality (fefuality?) , and likwise vexed
with the torment of conscience, she knew not what to do, but fearing God,
and S. brigit, prayed her earnestly, that she would vouchsafe to helpe
nad assist her being indistresse. At last she resouved with her selfe to
make a fire, putting her selfe thereinto, so by that meanes, with fire
she quenched fire, and with payne, overcame payne, which S. Brigit knewe
by divine revelation, yet nevertheles kept it secret, to see the event
and issue of the virgins combat. The next morning the virgin acknowledged
her sin to Saint Brigit, who sayed to her, because in fighting couragiously
this night, thou hast urnt thy selfe, the fire of fornication shall never
annoye thee in this life, nor the fire of hel burne thee in the next, then
the holy virgin did heale her feete, so that no marke of the burning did
appearin them.

4. Neither ought we to omit the great miracle, which this blessed Saint
wrought in imitation of our Saviour, by opening the enyes of a man who
was blind from his nativity. A certaine Queen that had no children,
b y the holy Virgins intercession obtayned issue. And as Almighty
God for her sake and merits, did help others in their necessityes, so did
he not fayle to assist her selfe in her wantes, for upon a certaine time
the holy virgin being in great necessity, besought God to help her to some
hoony, and what she fought for, she found it in great plenty, upon the
pavement of her house.

How the holy Virgin for the releaf of the poore, wrought many
admirable signes.CHAP VIII

Saint Brigit said to a certain virgin who begged almes of her, I heare
that there are many afflicted with sickness in your country, take therove
my girdle, and with it steaped in water you shal in the name of our Saviour
Jesues Christ deliver them of their infirmityes, and they will give you
both meate and cloathes, who taking the girdle, as the Saint commanded,
she cured diseases, getting thereby great gaynes, and becomming very rich,
she her selfe afterwardes, dealt great almes to the needy. Another
time she converted water into good beere to give to leapers who called
her for it. In like manner did she for the comfort of a needy person, convert
a stone into salt. She likewise devided one garment between two poore
men, and by divine vertue each part became an entire garment.

2. Among the many stupendous miracles she wrought, this is not to be
accounted the least, nor the least to be admired. To three leapers
who besought her to bestow some charity of them she gave a silver vessell,
and fearing it should be an occasion of debate, or discord amongst them
if they devided it themselves, she spoke to the gold smith to devided it
equally amongst them. But he making his excuse, that he could not
devide it into three equal partes, the most holy virgin her selfe tooke
it into her hand, and stroke it against a stone, and soe devided it into
three equall parcells, in so much that afterwardes being put in scales
to be weighed, neither part did overweigh the other, not so much as one
drame so equal were the devisions, and so the leapers departed away joyfully
with their shares, and with out cause either to envy, or any injury.

3. According to the example of holy job, she never permitted the poore
to depart from her with empty handes, for she gave them very pretious,
and rich gramentes, which a holy Bishop named Conleath, used to weare in
saying the divine mysteries of the Masse, upon the higher feastes of our
Lord, and the Apostles. Now when the time came, that the venerable
Prelate should according to his wonted manner, use the aforesaid episcopall
robes, the holy virgin, who had given them to Christ in his needy members,
receaved other such robes fully resembling the former, as well in the wearing,
or texture, as in colour, which were brought her in a waggon of two horses,
even at the same houre that she liberally gave the others to the poore.

4. So large and liberall was her charity to the poore that none
ever had a repulse hat her handes, as it is cleare and evident by this
ensuing narration. For one time being abroad in the feildes feeding
of her flocke, one who was well acquainted with the tendernes of her hart,
and largeness of her hand, came to her seaven times in one day begging
of almes, and every time she gave him a weather, and when evening approaching
she drove home the sheep, yet being tould over twice or thrice, the flocke
was found entire, and complete, not one being missing to the great wonder
of those who knew what chaunced. It is also recorded of her, that
after prayer made for that intent, she got miraculously a summe of money,
with which she ransommed a gulty person, whome the King appointed to be
put to death.

How the holy virgin declared the innocency of Bishop Broom Saint
Patrickes disciple, by making a young suckling to speake, and of other
no lesse remarkable miracles.CHAP. IX

A Certayne malitious woman, withouit regard of conscience or feare of
God, slandered most wickedly a venerable Bioshop of Saint Patrickes disciples
named Broom, by fathering upon him a child, which she had gotten by another.
The Bishop standing upon denial of the fact St. Brigit calling the woman
sayd, Who is the father of your child ? She answered, Bishop Broom,
With that S. Brigit signed the womans mouth with the figure of Christs
banner, and instantly her head swelled up with a great tumour, after she
blessedthe young infants tongue, saying to him, Who is your Father?
The child made answer, Bishop Broom is not my Father, but that wild
and deformed man, who sitteth last among the people. Then all the assembly
rendering many thankes, and prayses to God, constrained the lewed woman
to do pennance for her folly.

2. There was a certaine man named Linguidinus, who was indued with such
admirable strength, and surpassing vigour of body, that he himselfe alone
could do so much worke as twelve men, and who moreover was so great a devourer
of meate, as to eate at once so much , mig ht well serve twelve men, for
as in working he did countervaile twelve men, so likewise in eating
did he match that number. This man came to S. Brigit, beseeching
her to obtaine of god, that he would vouchsafe to temper, and bridle the
immoderate appetite of hiss devouring, and ravenous stomack, without diminishing
or mayning the strength of his body. The holy Virgin gave him her blessing,
and offered up her prayers to God in behalfe of his just petition, which
he obtayned by her merits, and intercession, for nevr after did he take
more , then was avble to satisfy one man, being nevertheless able to perform
so much worke as he was before, when he did eate most of all.

3. The sacred virgin sent for many uorkemen and reapers to cut downe
her corne and having agreed with them for their pay, and appointed a day
when they should come to performe their worke, it happened that the day
appointed proved very rayny, in so m uch that the cloudes powred forth
showers in great aboundance over all the province, exceptiong on S. Brigits
fields which were not wet at all, the rayne falling thicke upon every side,
so that where all the workemen in the country were constrayned to give
over their worke, by reason of the wet, and moistey season, S. Brigets
workemen continued from morning withoiut intermission or impediment, cutting
downe of her corne, not without the admirariton of all who saw, and heard
of that wonderful miracle.

4. Another miracle no lesse stupendious wherein the Reader may conteplate
the purity of her hart, the perfection of her soule, the eminency
of her merits, and the perogatiue of her vertues we are to recount, which
was this. As what time this sacred virgin f ed her flocke in a wide
and open playne, farre from any shelter, showres of rayne fell downe so
thicke, that she was wet to the skin, who comming home with her cloathes
all full of water she saw a suinne became pearcing in thorough a chinke,
that illuminating the roome, and taking it for a pearch (the quickness
of her eyes being hindered, or somewhat blunted) she cast hereon here wet
mantle, or upper garmente whereupon it hung being supported by it, as well
as by a beame, or post, to the great astonishment of all the neighbours,
who could not sufficiently admire the merits, and vertues of this holy
virgin.

Of S. Brigits happy departure ot of this life, and how she knew thereof
by divine revelation, and of some miracles wrought after hear death by
her intercession and merits.CHAP X
The sacred virgin having run out the course of her mortall dayes, in
the exercise of all kind of sanctimony, and innocency of life, the time
of the resouletion of her terrene tabernacle drew neere at hand, whose
desposition, as her selfe knew by revelation, and foretould to one
of her virgins, were not farre off. The holy virgin gave up her soule,
to her heavenly spouse about the yeare of our redemption 518. Her
venerable body, was placed in a sumptuous monument of gould, and silver,
adorned with jewells, and pretious stones, and was first interred in her
owne monasterie at Kildare, together with the sacred body of the holy Boishop
Conleath, afterwards it was translated (whereof we have an authentical
record) to the citty of Dune in Ulster where it lyes together with the
venerable bodies of S. Patriocke, and S. Columbe, the other two glorious
patrons of Ireland. At Kildare and other places, many mirracles have
been wrought by the merits of Saint Brigit, we will content our selves
with the relation of some few, fearing to cloy the Reader with too much
tediousnes.

2. The overseer of Saint Brigits great and famous monasterhy, sent workemen,
and stonehewers to provide a millstone, they neither reflecting ujpon the
difficulty of the way, nor yet regarding that there was no meanes of getting
downe the stone, went up to the topp of a most high and craggy mountayne,
where they hewed out a great stone forming it into a mill stone, the Oversseer
came with oxen and horses to carry it away, but seeing it impossible with
oxen and horses to go where it was, in regard of the steepe and graggfy
ascent, all begune to dispaire of ever getting it downe, and so were ready
to depart. But the prudent Overseer said, Not so, but let us in the
name of god and S. Brigit (to whome nothing is impossible) rowle it downe,
and so conc eaving a firm faith of the holie virgins asistance, they cast
it downe, and loe the stone rowling amongst the rocky, and stony crages,
trundled downe without any detriment from the mountaine, and thence was
carried to the mill. to which mill a certain pagan sent his corne
by an ignorant and simple man to be ground . when the corne was laid
between the stones the aforesaid stone being the uppermost stood iremoveable,
neither could the violent currents of the great river, or yet the paynfull
industry of men, wheel it about. at last knowing that the corne belonged
to a pagan Magitian, and therefore S. Brigits mill would not grinde it
they removed and put it away, powring other graine instede thereof, and
then the stone without any impediment, kept its ordinary and wonted course
in grinding.

3. It hapned within a while after that the mill by some chance or other
took fire which consumed the house and the other stone to that was joined
to this but as for this stone that was particularly dedicated to s. Briget,
the fire did not presume to touch, neither was it branded with any
figne, or marke of burning which made them to bring the stone away, and
to place it neare to St. Briogets churc doore, where a many diseased meeting,
by the only touch of this stone were delivered from their maladies.
Here our author by occasion of this infsueing miracle, enlargeth himself
in describing the magnificence of Saint Brigits church, the sumptuousnes
of the oratories, the curiosity of anticke workes, and variety of curious
portratures, with many other remarkable particulers, worthy the reading,
which we to continue our intended course of brevity, do wittingly pase
over, and will content our selves with the bare and succinct relation of
the mariacle it selfe, which was this.

4. The gate of Saint Brigits oratory, thourough which she, and her holy
virgins passed, when they went to receave the deliciouis viand of our Saviours
face and pure body being broken downe and made ider, the carpenters setting
the former doore upon the hinges which was found, was lesse by a fourth
part , or quarter whereupon they resolved, either to add another peece
to the ould doore, or to make another al of new, and as they were debating
the busines, the principall worke master sayd. Wee ought this next
night to watch and pray at S. Brigits monument, to the end that she may
direct us in the morning, what is best to be done in this matter, so passing
all the night over at her shrine and rising the next morning after, saying
some prayers, setting the ould doore upon the hinges, it fitted all the
gate so iust that it nether wanted, nor yet ecceeded any thing in conuenient
bignes and in this manner was the doore by the meritis of Saint Brigit,
exteneded to an equally commensurative proportion with the gate of
the church. Who can expresse ( sayth our author here) the admirable
beauty of this Church, or how can we declare the maruciles of this Citty?
Or who may recount the innumerable thronges, and infinit multitudes of
people flocking thither from all countryes? Some came to delight
themselves with plentifully diversity of banquets, some to solace themselves
with viriety of pleasant showes, and spectacles, others to obtayne the
cure of thir diseases, and others with rich, and great donaryes to solemnise
Saint Brigits natiall feast, which falleth upon the first of February,
upon which day in the year of Christ 518 as we have touched about in the
first paragraffe of this present chapter, the holy virgin passed from the
miseries of thi mortal life, to the immortall joyes of paradise.
Whither God of his infinit grace conduct us all to him, to his all immaculate
m other, and to the two glorious patrones of Ireland, Saint Patricke,
and Saint Brigit, be all honour, glory and prayse, world without end. Amen

Lesson 1: The holy Brigid, therefore, whom God foreknew, and predestined to
eternal glory, was born of good and very prudent Irish stock, offspring of
her father Dubhtach and her mother Brocca. From her youth she grew up in
studies of the good things. For this maiden was chosen by the Lord, and grew
always into the better things, being full of the principles of sobriety and
modesty. And who is able to fully tell the story of her deeds and wonders,
which she wrought even at this age? Yet for the sake of example we have
taken care to set before you these few deeds from amongst the innumerable.
When therefore she had come to maturity, she was sent by her mother to the
work of milking, that from milking the cows butter might be made from milk,
that just as other women usually laboured at this task, she also might
accomplish it in equal measure. But Thou.

Lesson 2: And when at the appropriate time the other women were making the
accustomed milking of the cows and the measured weight of butter as
commanded, they yielded quite fully the amount of butter customary for use,
but she, a virgin very beautiful and hospitable in her conduct, wishing to
obey God rather than men, distributed the milk and butter to the poor and
travellers, generously. And when according to custom the right time came for
all to yield up the fruit of the cows, it was now her turn. And once her
co-labouring maids had showed their completed work, it was asked of the
aforesaid virgin that she also should show her share of the work. And she,
anxious with fear of her mother, seeing she had nothing she could show,
because she had bestowed it all upon the poor, she (not obtaining a stay
till the next day), being steadfast and enkindled with a great and
inextinguishable flame of faith, betaking herself to the Lord, prayed.
Without delay, the Lord was with her, hearing the virgin's voice and her
prayers (seeing that He is our helper in our necessities) through the
generosity of His Divine gift. And He restored the butter overflowingly to
His virgin trusting in Him. But Thou.

Lesson 3: And behold, not long afterwards, when her parents wished to
betrothe her to a husband after the way of men, she --being inspired from
heaven--wishing to show herself a chaste virgin to God, made her way to the
most holy Bishop Machille of blessed memory. Seeing her heavenly desire and
purity, and the love of such chastity in the virgin, he placed upon her
venerable head a white veil and a shining white garment. She humbly bowing
her knees before God and the Bishop and the altar, and offering her virginal
crown unto the almighty Lord, touched with her hand the wooden base
wherewith the altar was upheld, which wood, in remembrance of its pristine
powers, sprouted forth with greenery (as it does even to the present day),
becoming green, as if it had not been cut and planed, but as if it were
fixed in place by its roots. And even until this day, it driveth sickness
and diseases from many of the faithful. And who is able to count up the
diverse multitudes and numberless peoples from all provinces of Ireland that
flowed together to her? They came together for the solemn feast of the
nativity of the holy Brigid, some because of the abundance of the banquets,
others because of their healings from their diseases, others coming together
with great gifts and donations. For that is when she, on the kalends of the
month of February, cast off the heaviness of the flesh, falling asleep in
security, and when she followed after the Lamb of God into the mansions of
heaven. But Thou.

From the Matins lessons of the Sarum Breviary, St. Hilarion Press

(The Sarum rite is used within parts of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside
of Russia and of the Milan Synod

Now as to Brigit she was born at sunrise on the first day of the spring,of
a bondwoman of Connacht. And it was angels that baptized her and that gave
her the name of Brigit, that is a Fiery Arrow. She grew up to be a serving
girl the same as her mother. And all the food she used was the milk of
a white red-eared cow that was set apart for her by a druid. And everything
she put her hand to used to increase, and it was she wove the first piece
of cloth in Ireland, and she put the white threads in the loom that have
a power of healing in them to this day. She bettered the sheep and she
satisfied the birds and she fed the poor.

Brigit in Her Father's House:

And when she grew to be strong and to have good courage she went to
her father Dubthach's house in Munster and stopped with him there. And
one time there came some high person to the house, and food was made ready
for him and for his people; and five pieces of bacon were given to Brigit,
to boil them. But there came into the house a very hungry miserable hound,
and she gave him out of pity a piece of the bacon. And when the hound was
not satisfied with that she gave him another piece. Then Dubthach came
and he asked Brigit were the pieces of bacon ready; and she bade him count
them and he counted them , and the whole of the five pieces were there,
not one of them missing. But the high guest that was there that Brigit
had thought to be asleep had seen all, and he told her father all that
happened. And he and the people that were with him did not eat that meat,
for they were not worthy of it, but it was given to the poor and to the
wretched.

She Minds the Dairy:

After that Brigit went to visit her mother that was in bondage to a
druid of Connacht. And it is the way she was at that time, at a grass-farm
of the mountains having on it twelve cows, and she gathering butter. And
there was sickness on her, and Brigit cared her and took charge of the
whole place. And the churning she made, she used to divide it first into
twelve parts in honour of the twelve apostles of our lord; and the thirteenth
part she would make bigger than the rest, to the honour of Christ, and
that part she would give to strangers and to the poor. And the serving
boy wondered to see her doing that, but it is what she used to say:"It
is in the name of Christ I feed the poor; for Christ is in the body of
every poor man"'

She Fills The Vessels:

One time the serving boy went to the druid's house and they asked was
the girl minding the dairy well. And he said"I am thankful, and the calves
are fat;" for he dared not say anything against the girl, and she not there.
But the druid got word of what she was doing and he came to visit the farm,
and his wife along with him; and the cows were doing well, and the calves
were fat. Then they went into the dairy, having with them a vessel eighteen
hands in height. And Brigit bade them welcome and washed their feet, and
made ready food for them, and after that they bade her fill up the vessel
with butter. And she had but a churning and a half for them, and she went
into the kitchen where it was stored and it is what she said:

"O my High Prince who can do all these things, this is not a forbidden
asking; bless my kitchen with thy right hand! "My kitchen, the kitchen
of the white Lord;a kitchen that was blessed by my king; a kitchen where
there is butter. "My Friend is coming, the Son of Mary; it is he blessed
my kitchen; the Prince of the world comes to this place;that there may
be plenty with him" After she had made that hymn she brought the half of
the churning from the place where it was stored and the druid's wife mocked
at her and said"It is good filling for a large vessel this much is!""Fill
your vessel" said Brigit, "and God will add something to it." And she was
going back to her kitchen and bringing half a churning every time and saying
every time a verse of those verses. And if all the vessels of the men of
Munster had been brought to her she would have filled the whole of them.

The Man That had lost his Wife's Love:

Brigit would give herself to no man in marriage but she took the veil
and after that she did great wonders. There came to her one time a man
making his complaint that his wife would not sleep with him but was leaving
him, and he came asking a spell from Brigit that would bring back her love.
And Brigit blessed water for him and it was what she said:" Bring that
water into your house, and put it in the food and in the drink and on the
bed." And after he had done that, his wife gave him great love, so that
she could not be as far as the other side of the house from him, but was
always at his hand. And one day he set out on a journey, leaving the wife
in her sleep, and as soon as she awoke from her sleep she rose up and followed
after her man till she saw him, and there was a strip of the sea between
them. And she called out to him it is what she said, that if he would not
come back to her, she would go into the sea that was between them.

The Drying of Brigit's Cloak:

One time Brennain, the saint of the Gael, came from the west to Brigit,
to the plain of the Life, for he wondered at the great name she had for
doing miracles and wonders. And Brigit came in from her sheep to welcome
him, and as she came into the house she laid her cloak that was wet on
the rays of the sun, and they held it up the same as hooks. Then Brennain
bade his serving lad to put his cloak on the sun rays in the same way,
and he put it on them, but twice it fell from them. Then Brennain himself
put it on them the third time, and there was anger on him, and that time
it stopped on the rays.

The King of Leinster's Fox:

One time there was a man of her household cutting firing, and it chanced
to him to kill a pet fox belonging to the King of Leinster, and the King
had him bake prisoner. But Brigit called the fox out of the wood, and he
came and was at his tricks and his games for the King and his people at
Brigit's bidding. And when he had done his tricks he went away safe through
the wood, and the army of Leinster, footmen and horsemen and hounds, after
him.

Brigit Spreads Her Cloak:

When she was a poor girl she was minding her cow one time at the Curragh
of Life/e and she had no place to feed it but the side of the road. And
a rich man that owned the land came by and saw her and he said:"How much
land would it take to give grass to the cow?" "As much as my cloak would
cover" said she. "I will give that" said the rich man. She laid down her
cloak then, and it was spreading out miles and miles on every side. But
there was a silly old woman passing by and she said "if that cloak goes
on spreading, all Ireland will be free; and with that the cloak stopped
and spread no more. And Brigit held that land through her lifetime, and
it never had rent on it since, but the English Government have taken it
now and have put barracks upon it. It is a pity the old woman spoke that
time. She did not know Brigit to be better than any other one.

The leper who would be a King:

A leper came one time to Brigit, asking a cow. And Brigit said "Would
you sooner have a cow or be healed of your disease?" "I would sooner be
healed" he said "than to have the sway over the whole world. For every
sound man is a king" he said. Then Brigit prayed to God; and the leper
was healed, and served her afterwards.

The Lake of Milk:

The Seven Bishops came to her in a place she had in the north of Kildare,
and she asked her cook Blathnet had she any food, and she said she had
not. And Brigit was ashamed, being as she was without food before those
holy men, and she prayed hard to the Lord. Then angels came and bade her
to milk the cows for the third time that day. So she milked them herself,
and they filled the pails with the milk, and the whole of Leinster. And
the milk overflowed the vessels till it made a lake that is called the
Lake of Milk to this day.

The Things Brigit Wished For:

These were the wishes of Brigit:

"I would wish a great lake of ale for the King of Kings; I would wish
the family of Heaven to be drinking it through life and time. "I would
wish the men of Heaven in my own house; I would wish vessels of peace to
be giving to them.

I would wish vessels full of alms to be giving
away; I would wish ridges of mercy for peacemaking.I would wish joy to be in their drinking;I would wish
Jesus to be here among them.I would wish the three Marys of great name;I would wish the people of Heaven from every side.I would wish to be a rent-payer to the Prince; the way
if I was in trouble he would give me a good blessing.

Whatever, now, Brigit would ask of the Lord, he would give it to
her on the moment And it is what her desire was, to satisfy the poor, to
banish every hardship, and to save every sorrowful man.

The Son of Reading:

One time she was minding her sheep on the Curragh, and she saw a son
of reading running past her. "What is it makes you so uneasy?" she said
"and what is it you are looking for?" "It is to Heaven I am running, woman
of the veil" said he scholar. "The Virgin's son knows he is happy that
makes that journey"

said Brigit. "And pray to God to make it easy for myself to go there"
she said. "I have no time" said he; "for the gates of Heaven are open now,
and I am in dread they might be shut against me. And as you are hindering
me" he said "pray to the Master to make it easy for me to go there and
I will pray him to make it easy for you" Then they said "Our Father" together,
and he was religious from that out, and it was he gave her absolution at
the last. And it is by reason of him that the whole of the sons of learning
of the world are with Brigit.

The Fishes Honour Her:

Brennain came to Brigit one time to ask why was it the beasts of the
sea gave honour to her more than to the rest of the saints. Then they made
their confession to each other, and Brennain said after that " In my opinion,
girl, it is right the beasts are when they honour you above ourselves".

A Hymn Made for Brigit by Brennain or Another:

" Brigit, excellent woman; sudden flame; may the bright fiery sun bring
us to the lasting kingdom.
"May Brigit save us beyond troups of demons;
"May she break before us the battles of every death.
"May she do away with the rent sin has put on us; the blossomed branch;
the Mother of Jesus; the dear young woman greatly looked up to. That I
may be safe in every place with my saint of Leinster.

The First of February:

And from that time to this the housekeepers have a rhyme to say on Saint
Brigit's day, bidding them to bring out a firkin of butter and to divide
it among the working boys. For she was good always, and it was her desire
to feed the poor, to do away with every hardship, to be gentle to every
misery, And it is on her day the first of the birds begin to make their
nests, and the blessed Crosses are mad with straw and are put up in the
thatch; for the death of the year is don with and the birthday of the year
is come. And it is what the Gael of Scotland say in a averse:

" Brigit, but her finger in the river on the feast day of Brigit and
away went the hatching-mother of the cold.

"She washed the palms of her hands in the river on the day of the feast
of Patrick, and away went the birth-mother of the cold."

A Hymn Brocan Made for Brigit:

Victorious Brigit did not love the world; the spending of the world
was not dear to her; a wonderful ladder for the people to climb to the
kingdom of the Son of Mary. "A wild boar came among her swine; he hunted
the wild pigs to the north; Brigit blessed him with her staff, that he
made his dwelling with her own herd. "She was open in all her doings; she
was only Mother of the great King's Son; she blessed the frightened bird
till she played with it in her hand. "Before going with angels to the battle
let us go running to the church; to remember the Lord is better than any
poem. Victorious Brigit did not lover the world"

Her Care for Leinster:

On the day of the battle of Almhuin, Brigit was seen over the men of
Leinster, and Columcille was seen over the Ua Neill; and it was the men
of Leinster won that battle. And a long time after that again, when Strongbow
that had brought great trouble into Ireland and that was promised the kingdom
of Leinster was near his end, he cried out from his bed that he saw Brigit
of the Gael, and that it was she herself was bringing him to his death.

She Remembers the Poor:

But if Brigit belonged to the east, it is not in the west she is forgotten,
and the people of Burren and of Corcomruadh and Kinvara go every year to
her blessed well that is near the sea, praying and remembering her. And
in that well there is a little fish that is seen every seven years, and
whoever sees that fish is cured of every disease. And there is a woman
living yet that is poor and old and that saw that blessed fish, and this
is the way she tells the story:" I had a pearl in my eye one time, and
I went to Saint Brigit;s well on the cliffs.Scores of people there were
in it, looking for cures, and some got them and some did not get them.
And I went down the four steps to the well and I was looking into it, and
I saw a little fish no longer than your finger coming from a stone under
the water. Three spots it had on the one side and three on the other side,
red spots and a little green with the red, and it was very civil coming
hither to me and very pleasant wagging its tail. And it stopped and looked
up at me and gave three wags of its back, and walked off again and went
under the stone."And I said to a woman what was near me that I saw the
little fish, and she began to call out and to say there were many coming
with cars and with horses for a month past and none of them saw it at all.
And she proved me, asking had it spots, and I said it had, tree on the
one side and three on the other side. That is it she said. And within three
days I had the sight of my eye again. It was surely Saint Brigit I saw
that time; who else would it be? And you would know by the look of it that
it was no common fish. Very civil it was, and nice and loughy, and no one
else saw it at all. Did I say more prayers than the rest? Not a prayer.
I was young in those days. I suppose she took a liking to me, maybe because
of my name being Brigit the same as her own."

The Boy that Dreamed He Would Get His Health:

There was a beggar boy used to be in Burren, that was very simple like
and had no health, and if he would walk as much as a few perches it is
likely he would fall on the road. And he dreamed twice that he went to
Saint Brigit's blessed well upon the cliffs and that he found his health
there. So he set out to go to the well, and when he came to it he fell
in and he was drowned. Very simple he was and innocent and without sin.
It is likely it is in heaven he is at this time.

The Water of the Well:

And there is a woman in Burren now is grateful to Saint Brigit, for
"I brought my little girl that was not four years old " she says " to saint
Brigit's well on the cliffs, where she was ailing and pining away. I brought
her as far as the doctors in Gort and they could do nothing for her and
then I promised to go to Saint Brigit's well, and from the time I made
that promise she got better. And I saw the little fish when I brought her
there; and she grew to be as strong a girl as ever went to America. I made
a promise to go to the well ever year after that, and so I do, of a Garlic
Sunday, that is the last Sunday in July. And I brought a bottle of water
from it last year and it is as cold as amber yet"

The Binding:

And when the people are covering up a red sod under the ashes in the
night time to spare the seed of the fire for the morning, they think upon
brigit the fiery Arrow and it is what they do be saying:"I save this fire
as Christ saved every one; Brigit beneath it, the Son of Mary within it;
let the three angels having most power in the court of grace be keeping
this house and the people of this house and sheltering them until the dawn
of day." For it is what Brigit had a mind for; lasting goodness that was
not hidden;minding sheep and rising early; hospitality towards good men.
It is she keeps everyone that is in straits and in dangers; it is she puts
down sickeness; it is she quiets the voice of the waves and the anger of
the great sea. She is the queen of the south; she is the mother of the
flocks; she is the Mary of the Gael. ____________________________________________________________________________________

Source: A Book of Saints and Wonders Put down here by Lady Gregory According
to the Old Writings and the Memory of the People of Ireland.,Lady Augusta
Gregory, London, John Murray,Albermarle St, M MVII

Sit thou safely enthroned, triumphant Brigit, upon the side of Liffey
far as the strand of the ebbing sea!

Thou art the sovereign lady with banded hosts that presides over the
Children of Cath/air the Great.God's counsel at every time concerning Virgin
Erin is greater than can be told: though glittering Liffey is thine today,
it has been the land of others in their turn.

When from its side I gaze upon the fair Curragh....The lot that has
fallen to every king causes awe at each wreck

Logaire was king as far as the sea,--Ailill `Ane, a mighty fate: the
Curragh with its glitter remains-- none of the kings remains that lived
thereon.

Perfect Labraid Longsech lives no more, having trodden under foot his
fair thirty years: since in Dinn Rig--`twas a wonted abode--he dealt doom
to Cobthach the Slender.

Lore's grandson, Oengus of R`oiriu, seized the rule of Erin,....sway;
Maistiu of the freckled neck, son of Mug Airt, through princes across their
graves.

Fair-famed Alenn! Delightful knowledge! Many a prince is under its girth:
it is greater than can be fathomed when Crimthan the Victorious was seen
in its bosom.

The shout of triumph heard there after each victory around a shock of
swords, a mettlesome mass; the strength of its warrior-bands against the
dark blue battle-array; the sound of its horns above hundreds of heads.

The tuneful ring of its even-colored bent anvils, the sound of songs
heard there from the tongues of bards; the ardour of its men at the glorious
contest; the beauty of its women at the stately gathering.

Drinking of mead there in every home-stead;its noble steeds, many tribes;
the jingle of chains unto kings of men under blades of five-edged bloody
spears.

The sweet strains heard there at every hour' its wine-barque upon the
purple flood; its shower of silver of great splendor; its torques of gold
from the lands of the Gaul.

Far as the sea of Britain the high renown of each king has sped like
a meteor: delightful Alenn with its might has made sport of every law.

Bresal Bree was king over Elg, Fiachra Fobree with a fierce band of
warriors; Ferus of the Sea, Finn son of Roth they loved to dwell in lofty
Alenn.

Worship of auguries is not worth listening to, nor of spells and auspices
that betoken death; all is vain when it is probed, since Alenn is a deserted
doom.

Briget is the smile that smiles on you from the plain...of Core's land;
of each generation which it reared in turn Liffey of Lore has made ashes.

The Currah of Liffey to the brink of the main, the Curragh of S`etna,
a land of peace as far as the sea,--many is the king whom the Curragh of
Carbre Nia-fer has overthrown.

Cath`air the Great-- he was the choicest of shapes --ruled Erin of many
hues: though you cry upon him at his rath, his prowess of many weapons
has vanished.

Fiachna of Fomuin, glorious Bresal ruled the sea with showers of spears:
thirty great kings to the edge of the sea seized land around Tara of Bregia.

The Peaks of Iuchna, delightful place, around which many graves have
settled behold in lofty Allen the abode of Tadg, son of Nuada Necht!

The apparel of Feradach-- a goodly diadem--around whom crested bands
would move; his blue-speckled helmet, his shining mantle,--many a king
he overthrew.

Dunlang of Fornochta, he was generous, a prince who routed battles against
the sons of Niall: though one were to tell the tale to all, this is not
the world that was once.

Illann with his tribe launched thirty battles against every king, Enna's
grandson, a rock against terror, it was not a host without a king's rule.

Ailill was a king that would bestow favour, against whom a fierce blood-dark
battle-host would rise: Cormac, Carbre, Colman the Great, Brandub, a barque
in which were hosts.

Faelan the Fair was a track of princeship, Fianamail with....; Braiin,
son of Conall with many deeds, he was the wave over every cliff.

Oh Brigit whose land I behold, on which each one in turn has moved about,
thy fame has outshone the fame of the king--thou art over them all.

Thou hast everlasting rule with the king apart from the land wherein
is thy cemetery. Grand-child of Bresal son of Dian, sit thou safely enthroned,
triumphant Brigit!

Genealogy of the holy maiden Bride

Lasair dhealraich oir,muime
Radiant flame of gold, foster-mother
chorr Criosda.
over Christ.
Bride nighinn Dughaill duinn,
Bride the daughter of Dougall the brown,
Mhic Aoidh, mhic Airt,mhic Cuinn,
Son of Aoidh, son of Airt, son of Cuinn,
Mhic Crearair, mhic Cis, mhic
Son of Crearair, son of Cis, son of Carmaig,
mhic Carruinn.
son of Carruinn.
Gach la agus gach oidhche
Each day and each night
Ni mi sloinntireachd air Bride,
I will say the genealogy of Bride,
Cha mharbhar mi,cha spuillear mi,
I will not be killed,I will not be harried,
Cha charcar mi,cha chiurar mi,

I will not be put in cell,I will not be wounded,
Cha mhu dh'fhagas Chriosd an dearmad mi.
Neither will Christ leave me in forgetfullness
Cha loisg teine,grian, no gealach mi,
No fire,no sun, no moon will burn me
Cha bhath luin, no sala mi.
No lake, no water, no sea shall drown me,
Cha reub saighid sithich,no sibhich mi,
No dart of fairy nor arrow of fay will wound me,
Is mi fo chomaraig mo naomh Muire
And I under the protection of my holy mother Mary,
Is i fo chaomh mhuime Bride
And her under her foster-mother Bride.

Briget References:

From : The Martyrology of Donegal., A Calendar of the Saints of Ireland,
Trans. John O`Donovan,Dublin,The Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society,
1864.(Original: Michael O'Clery,Compiler,Donegal,April 19,1630)
P.35. Kalendis FebruarII 1.

Brighit,

Virgin, abbess of Cill-dara. She was of the race of Eochaidh Finnfuathairt,
son of Feidhlijidh Reachtmhar, son of Tuathal Teachmhar, monarch of Erinn.
Broiccseach, daughter of Dallbronach, son of Aedh Meamhair, was her mother,
and she was the sister of Ultan of Ard-Breccain , and it was Ultan that
collected the virtues, and miracles of Brighit together and who commanded
his disciple Brogann to put them into poetry as is evident in the Book
of Hymns, i.e., The victorious Brighit did not love, etc.
When Moling was returning from the king of Erinn after obtaining the
remission of he Borumha(the tribute of oxen) from Fionnachta, king of Erinn,
the people of the king were seized with regret, and they followed him to
kill him. When Moling saw this he had recourse to the protection of the
saints, and he implored Brighit first, and said: O Brighit, bless our path,
etc...
A very ancient old book of vellum, in which is found the Martyrology
of Maelruain of Tamhlach and the saints of the same name, and the names
of many of the mothers of the saints, states that Brighit was following
the manners and the life which the holy Mary,mother of Jesus had.
It was this Brighit, too, that did not take her mind or her attention
from the Lord for the space of one hour at any time, but was constantly
mentioning Him, and ever constantly thinking of Him, as evident in her
own life, and also in the life of Saint Brenainn, bishop of Cluain-fearta.
She was very hospitable and very charitable to guests and to needy people.
She was humble, and attended to the herding of sheep and early rising,
as her life proves, and as Cuimin of Coindeire states in the poem whose
beginning is, Patrick of the fort of Macha loved, etc.. Thus he says:---
The blessed Brighit loved Constant piety, which was not prescribed:
Sheep-Herding and early rising Hospitality towards men of virtues. She
spent indeed 74 years diligently serving the Lord, performing signs and
miracles, curing every disease, and sickness in general as evident in her
own life, until she yielded her spirit, after having completed seventy-four
years as we have said before, A.D. 525, ( A.D. 525. The more recent hand
has corrected this date to 522, adding in the margin this note: ex. Ii.
Binarlo numero fecit quinariam literam transcriptoris error; i.e., the
transcriber mistook xxii for xxxv) and she was buried at D/un in one tomb
with Patrick, where Colum Cille was afterwards interred. The life of Ciaran
of Cluain states, chapt. 47, that the Order of Brighit was one of the eight
Orders that were in Erinn.

Another Version:

1. I). KALENDIS FEBRUARII.
1.
BRÎGHIT, Virgin, abbess of C'ill-dara. She was of the race of
Eochaidh Finnfuathairt, son of Feidhlimidli Reachtmhar, son of
Tuathal Teachtmliar, monarch of Eriim. Broiccseach, daughter
of Dallbronach, son of Aedh Meamhair, was lier mother, and she
was the sister of Ultan of Ard-Breccain, and it was Ultan that
collected the virtues and miracles of Brighit together, and who
commanded his disciple Brogan to put them into poetry, as is
evident in the Book of Hymns, i.e., "The victorious1 Brighit
did not love," &c.
When Moling was returning from the king of Erinn, after
obtaining the remission of the Borumha2 from Fionnachta, king
of Erinn, the people of the king were seized with regret, and
they followed him to kill him. When Moling saw this he had
recourse to the protection of the saints, and he implored Brighit
first, and said : " 0 Brighit, bless our path," &c.
A very ancient old book of vellum, in which is found the
Martyrology of Maelruain of Tamhlacht and the saints of the
same name, and the names of many of the mothers of the saints,
states that Brighit was following the manners and the life
which the holy Mary, mother of Jesus had.
It was this Brighit, too, that did not take her mind or her
attention from the Lord for the space of one hour at any time,
but was constantly mentioning Him, and ever constantly thinking
of Him, as is evident in her own life, and also in the life of
Saint Brenainn, bishop of Cluain-fearta. She was very hospitable
and very charitable to guests and to needy people. She
was humble, and attended to the herding of sheep and early
rising, as her life proves, and as Cuimin of Coindeire states in

1 The Victorious. This is the first line of thi- metrical
Life of St. Brigid, published from
tin- Book of Hymns, by Colgan., p. 515. (T.)

the poem whose beginning is,
" Patrick of the fort of Macha
loved," &c. Thus he says :— "
The blessed Brighit loved
Constant piety, which was not prescribed ;
Sheep-herding and early rising—
Hospitality towards men of virtues."
She spent indeed 74 years diligently serving the Lord, performing
signs and miracles, curing every disease, and sickness in
general, as is evident in her own life, until she yielded her
spirit, after having completed seventy-four years, as we have
said before, A.D. 525,1 and she was buried at Dun, in one tomb
with Patrick, where Coluin Cille was afterwards interred. The
life of Ciaran of Cluain states, chap. 47, that the Order of Brighit
was [one] of the eight Orders that were in Erinn.

- The Martyrology of Donegal, A CALENDAR
OF THE SAINTS OF IRELAND, , Trans: John O'Donovan,1864

Article II.—Feast
Of The Translation Of The Relics Of St. Patrick, St. Columba, And St. Brigid,
Chief Patrons Of Ireland. Far distant from each other lay the sacred
relics of the great Apostle of Ireland St. Patrick, of the renowned Virgin St.
Brigid, and of the illustrious St. Columkille, for many generations after their
respective dates of departure from this life. The former, first in order of
time, was deposed at Downpatrick,1 and according to a long-preserved tradition,
in a very deep earth-pit,3 without the site of that cathedral.3 After the lapse
of years, the body of the Irish Apos-

Rev. Dr. O'Brien's English-Irish Dictionary, 3 At the present time, the
people there

Preface, p. 28. point to St. Patrick's grave, and this tradi-

835 " Ipsam quoqtie Romanam civitatem lion appears to have continued from time

tie seems to have been drawn
from that position/ and it was probably enshrined or entombed within the church.
In the century succeeding that of St. Patrick died St. Brigid.s and her remains
appear to have been deposited within the church at Kildare, attached to her
convent. They rested in a shrine, at one side of the high altar,6 and they were
held in great veneration by the people, especially on the day of her chief
festival, when multitudes flocked thither for devotional purposes. Many miracles
were wrought there through her intercession. The body of St Brigid remained in
Kildare, until the beginning of the ninth century. The magnificent shrine in
which her relics were encased invited the cupidity of the Scandinavian invaders,
and as Kildare was greatly exposed to their ravages, it was deemed more
desirable to have St. Brigid's relics removed to Downpatrick, where they should
be in a more defensible position, and more secure from plunder or profanation.7
When the happy soul of St. Cohimba departed from the tenement of his body after
his useful missionary career in Scotland had terminated,8 and until the time of
Adamnan,' the place where his sacred bones reposed was well known and
reverenced. Frequently did his monks resort thither, less to offer prayers for
the loved and lamented Father of their institute, than to prefer their own
petitions for his powerful patronage. Visited by the holy angels,and illumined
in a miraculous manner by heavenly light, was that grave, which for many long
years succeeding his decease had been exposed to the winds, that played freely
over the ancient cemetery at lona. Those visions were clearly manifested, but
only to a select few.10 It would appear from the words of Adamnan," which are
borrowed from the earlier work of Cummian," that at least a century was allowed
to elapse, before the remains of St. Columba were disinterred.'3 In the course
of the eighth century, it seems probable, that the bones of St. Columba had been
removed, and that they had been deposited in a shrine or shrines.1* Afterwards,
they must have been transferred to the church of the monastery in lona, where
they were religiously preserved, so long as it was deemed safe to keep them in
that venerated spot. Ireland is said to have been selected as a country best
suiting such a purpose, when the occasion arose, which demanded their removal.
Towards the close of the eighth century, the Scandinavian sea-rovers began to
sail southwards, in quest of new settlements and bent upon plunder. The
appearance of the Northman invaders on the Hebridean coasts gave warning to
conceal the precious shrine, in which, doubtless, the relics of St. Columba had
been encased. But such a temporary expedient could not long save it from their
cupidity and profanation. Tlie accounts contained in our Irish Annals state,
that the remains '5 of St. Columba had been brought to Erin, after his death,
and on more than one occasion. A belief seems to have existed, at the close of
the eighth century, that his relics had been brought to Ireland from Britain,
and that they had been deposited in Saul. Another mediaeval tradition sets forth
Downpatrick, as having been his resting place. These contradictory accounts may
be reconciled, however, by supposing a translation from Saul, when it became a
subordinate church, and on the erection of Downpatrick into a Bishop's See.
Another thoroughly legendary account of a still later date gives us to
understand, that when Manderus, son to a Danish king, and chief of the Northman
piratical fleet, ravaged the northern parts of Britain with fire and sword, he
also came to lona, and there he profaned the sanctuary, while digging in the
earth for treasures he thought to be concealed. Amongother impieties, he opened
the sarcophagus or case, in which lay the body of St. Columba. This he is said
to have carried with him to that vessel, in which

immemorial. It is customary
(o take away earth from the spot, and a hallowed efficacy is attributed to iu
possession. Not alone the Catholic people of Downpatrick, but those from the
most distant parts of the world, eager!) seek to obtain some of this clay, which
is thought to preserve the owner from accident through fire or water. It is
believed to be efficacious, also, in curing diseases. In 1874, when the writer
visited that place, he saw a peasant engaged in taking some to his home, and as
he said to cure some member of his family, suffering from a distemper.

4 According to the " Annals of Ulster," in the year 552, when the Irish Apostle
was about sixty years dead, St. Columba exhumed his relics.

5 See the Second Volume of this work, for the Life of this venerable Abbess, at
the 1st of February, Art.!., chap. xiv.

14 About this period, also, it became customary to prepare costly shrines for
the relics of saints in the Irish churches.

15 Perhaps, however, we are not to confound those relics mentioned with the body
of St. Columba, in all cases.

16 The early cathedral of Downpatrick has long since disappeared, but upon
itssile had been erected a medieval church, with pointed Gothic windows, and
beside it stood a Round Tower. A representation of both may be seen in the Third
Volume of this work, in the Life of St. Patrick, chap, xxvi., at the 17th of
March, Art. i. These objects have been removed, since the year 1790, and another
Protestant cathedral has been erected, at the same spot. The accompanying
illustration of the latter is from a photograph, and it has been drawn by
William F. Wakcmnn on ihe wood, engraved by Mrs. Millanl.

he sailed for Ireland ; but,
on opening the ches t, in which he found only bones and ashes, he threw it
overboard. Then it miraculously floated on the waves, until it was wafted to the
innermost part of Strangford Lough, near to Down- patrick.'6 There, it is
related, that the Abbot had a Divine revelation, regarding the sacred deposit it
contained. Accordingly, he extracted the relics, and placed them with the
lifsantz of Saints Patrick and Brigid." We

Downpatrick Cathedral. need not attach

the slightest credit to the
foregoing account; for, it may be observed, that the earliest recorded descent
of the Northmen on lona was in 802, nor does it seem likely, that the body of
St. Brigid had been removed from Kildare to Downpatrick, at so early a date.
However, it cannot have been very long after this year, when the relics of St.
Brigid were removed from Kildare to Down. There, it seems probable, they had
been kept in their own distinctive shrine, which was a costly work of art.
Elsewhere, too, some other relics of this holy Patroness of Ireland had been
preserved.'8 Moreover, in the year 825, when the Scandinavians again visited the
Island of lona, St. Columba's shrine adorned with precious metals was there, and
to prevent desecration it was hidden

demandavit Urbanus III."
There is not a title page, at least in the copy, the property of Rev. Denis
Murphy, S.J., and that used by the writer. Theoffice has a First Vespers, with
proper Antiphons, Capitulum, and Prayer. The Invitatorium of Matins is proper,
with all the Antiphons and Six Lessons, the remaining three being from the
Common of Evangelists, with proper Versicles and Responses. The Lauds, Hours and
second Vespers are of a mixed character. Afterwards follows a proper Mass.

by St. Blaithmac and by the monks, who suffered martyrdom on
that occasion. '9 It is probable, that some of the monks who escaped had
knowledge of that place where it had been concealed, and that returning soon
afterwards to lona, the shrine was again replaced in their church. In 829,
Diarmait,** Abbot of Hy, went to Alba, with the minna 2I of St. Columkille, and in 831 he returned with
them to Ireland. Again, in the year 878, the shrine and all St. Columba's
minna were transferred to Ireland, the better to secure them from the Danes.
In 976, there is an account of the shrine of St. Columkille having been
plundered by Donald Mac Murchada." There is noaccountof what shrine this had
been, however, or where it had been kept.'s In the year 1127, the Danes of
Dublin carried off St. Columba's shrine, but they restored it at the end of a
month,'* probably stripped of its precious metals and ornaments. It seems
strange, that while the relics of the three great Irish Patrons had been kept
with such religious veneration in the Cathedral Church of Down- patrick, fora
long lapse of ages, that in the twelfth century the place of their deposition
within it was forgotten. It would appear, that the Northmen frequently attacked,
plundered, and burned that town. It is probable, that the sacred remains had
been buried in the earth, to preserve them from profanation, and that the secret
place of their deposition had been confided to only a few of the ecclesiastics,
who perished through violence, or who had not been able to return afterwards, to
indicate that exact spot, in which they had been laid. For a long time, the
bishops, clergy and people of Down lamented this loss, until about the year
1185, when Malachy III. was bishop over that See. This pious prelate had been
accustomed to offer earnest prayers to the Almighty, that the eagerly desired
discovery might be made. One night, while engaged at prayer within the
cathedral, Malachy observed a supernatural light, resembling a sunbeam, passing
through the church and settling over a certain spot. This astonished the bishop,
who prayed that the light might remain, until implements should be procured to
dig beneath it. Accordingly, these being procured, beneath that illuminated
place, the bodies of the three great saints were found; the body of St. Patrick
occupied a central compartment, while the remains of St. Brigid and of St.
Columba were placed on either side. With great rejoicing, he disinterred the
bodies of those illustrious saints, and he placed them in three separate
coffins. He then had them deposited in the same spot, whence they had been
taken, and he took care to have the site exactly noted. In fine, the bones of
St. Columkille were buried with great honour and veneration, in the one place
with those of St. Patrick and of St. Brigid, within Dun-da-lethgles or
Downpatrick cathedral, in Ulster.2' About this
time, the celebrated John De Courcy had procured possessions, in that part of
the province; and to him, Bishop Malachy reported all the circumstances,
connected with the miraculous discovery of the relics. Taking counsel together,
it was resolved, that application should be made to the Pope at Rome, for
permission to remove the sacred remains, to a more conspicuous and honourable
position in the cathedral. At this time, Urban III. presided over the Universal
Church. Supplication was made to him, that the relics of those saints should be
translated in a solemn manner. Not alone was his sanction obtained, but the Pope
nominated Cardinal Vivian, as his Legate for Ireland, with a commission to
direct the undertaking. Accordingly, on the gth of June, 1186, this public
Translation of the remains was solemnized. No less than fifteen Bishops were
present, besides many abbots

*> His election to the
papacy took place, eleven months. See 1'Abbd Fleury's " His- on the 25th of
November, A.d. 1185. He toire
Ecclesiastique," tome xv., liv. Uxiv., lived afterwards only one year and nearly
sect, i., p. 476.

and high dignitaries, with a great concourse of the clergy
and laity, the Car- dina! Legate himself assisting. An office,26
which is said to date back to the twelfth century, has been attributed to the
approval of Cardinal Vivian, who assisted in the time of Pope Urban III.,"' at
this solemn Translation of the Relics of St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St.
Brigid, in Downpatrick. This was a Double of the First Class, with an Octave.
The Bollandists have fallen into an error, in placing the Finding of the Relics
of Saints Patrick, Brigid and Columba,38 at this
date, which should rather be called that for their Translation.

be traced in the Irish Annals to a much later '° See " Acta
Sanctorum," tomus ii., Junii

-Lives of the Irish
Saints: With Special Festivals, and the Commemorations of Holy Persons, Compiled
from Calenders, Martyrologies, and Various Sources, Relating to the Ancient
Church History of Ireland., John O'Hanlon, Catholic Pub. Society, 1873,

From: Miscellanea Hagiographica Hibernica.

Carolus Plummer,Bruxelles,Societe Des Bollandists,1925
p.181
11. Brigit, abbess of Cell Dara, Feb. 1. First Irish Life.
MSS.
1.L.Br., pp.61-66
2. Book of Lismore,ff 11-17.
Paris, ff 76-81.
4. O'Cleary 1, ff 24-30. (A later heading notes that the Life is imperfect:
Betha Brighde gan beth criochnuigthe.) 5. O'Clearyu 2, ff. 6-30. This is
headed:"A small fragment of the Life and Miracles of St. Brigit; the first
part of the Life was copied from the Book of Brian O'Naillgusa, and the
remainder from the vellum book written by the community of Cianan" (i.e.
Duleek). It omits the Latin text,but the Irish incipit is the same as in
the other MSS. Expl. a llo mordala bratha, "in the day of the great asize
of dooom", It is evidently a conflate Life.
2 and 3 are a longer recension than 1.
Edd. By Whitley Stokes from 1 in Three Middle-Irish Homililies,Calacutta,
1877. By the same from 2 in Lismore Lives of Saints, pp.34-53. 182-200.
Inc. Hic sunt qui sequuntur Annum. Exlp.. a l. Ailiom trocaire 7c
12. Second Irish Life.
MS 1 Rawl. B 512, ff. 31-36
Imperfect at beginning:...miracula uulgata sunt. Laae nand isuidiu
luid in Broiscech do bleogan. Expl.Vita: pluuiam et uentum sedauit, f.
35. Then follows an appendix of anecdotes almost idendical with those in
the notes to Broccan's Hymn: "Ni car Brigit", Liber Hymnorum,i. 112ff.;
Thes.ii.327. The Life is a mixture of Latin and Irish, lthe Irish prevailing.
Considerable extracts from it are quoted by Stokes in Lismore Lives, pp319-331.
13. Third Irish Life.
MSS
1. Kings' Inns, Dublin, No. 19,pp.493-514.
2.R.I.A. Hodges and Smith No. 168, f. 116 v.
3. ib. ib. No 12,pp.479-505.
After a preface stating that it was taken from Capgrave's abridgement
of Cogitosus, Inc. Ase. ionad a rugad an oig bennaigthi glomar, Brigid,
a bFochard. Expl. mar a ttr`eorchaidh Dia l`e a ghr`assibh dochriochnuighthe
sinn uile; cf Capgrave, Ed. Horstman,i. 153-9; for Cogitosus, cf. Trias
Thaum., pp.518-26.

"The Giveaway"(from The Love Letters of Phyllis Mcginley, New York, Viking
Press, 1957)

Saint Bridget was
A problem child.
Although a lass
Demure and mild,
And one who strove
To please her dad,
Saint Bridget drove
The family mad.
For here's the fault in Bridget lay:
She Would give everything away.

To any soul
Whose luck was out
She'd give her bowl
Of stir about;
She'd give her shawl,
Divide her purse
With one or all.
And what was worse,
When she ran out of things to give
She'd borrow from a relative.

Her father's gold,
Her grandsire's dinner,
She'd hand to cold
and hungry sinner;
Give wine, give meat,
No matter whose;
Take from her feet
The very shoes,
And when her shoes had gone to others,
Fetch forth her sister's and her mother's.

She could not quit.
She had to share;
Gave bit by bit
The silverware,
The barnyard geese,
The parlor rug,
Her little niece-
's christening mug,
Even her bed to those in want,
And then the mattress of her aunt.

An easy touch
For poor and lowly,
She gave so much
And grew so holy
That when she died
Of years and fame,
The countryside
Put on her name,
And still the Isles of Erin fidget
With generous girls named Bride or Bridget.

Well, one must love her.
Nonetheless,
In thinking of her
Givingness,
There's no denial
She must have been
A sort of trial
Unto her kin.
The moral, too, seems rather quaint.
WHO had the patience of a saint,
From evidence presented here?
Saint Bridget? Or her near and dear?

Brigit the fair, Virgin, Abbess, daughter of Dubthach son of Demre, son of
Bresal, son of Connla, son of Art Corp, son of Cairbre Nia, son of Cormac,
son of Oengus the Dumb, son of Eochaid Find Fuathnairt, son of Feidlimid
Rechtmad.

The white-one from Liffey of the slopes, daughter of Dubthach of Druim derg:
tomorrow she goes quickly, so that from her hand is Patrick's bequest.

Brigit's three eighths, to wit, her birth on the eighth (of the month), her veil
on the eighteenth, her death on the twenty-eighth.

Eight Bishops came to Brigit out of Hui Briuin Cualann, i.e. from Telach na n-epscop
to Loch Lemnachta beside Kildare on the north. Brigit asked her
cook, Blathnait, whether she had food for the Bishops. She said she did not.
Brigit was ashamed: so the angel told her to milk the cows again. The
cows were milked and they filled the tubs, and they would have filled all the
vessels in Leinster, so that the milk went over the vessels and made a
lake thereof, so Loch Lemnachta is called 'New-milk Lough'.

A robber came to Dubthach, who took a joint out of the caldron for him, and he
made five pieces thereof, and gave them to Brigit to keep. But a
wretched hound came to her, and she gave it the five pieces out of the
caldron,and the five pieces were then found in the caldron. That was told to
Dubthach, and then he gave to her and to God the land, to wit, the site of an
oratory in Tuath da Maige.

A young cleric of the community of Ferns, a foster-son of Brigit's, used to come
to her with wishes. He was with her in the refectory, to partake of food.
Once after coming to Communion she strikes a clapper. "Well, young cleric
there," says Brigit, "hast thou a soulfriend?" "I have," replied the young
cleric. "Let us sing his requiem," says Brigit, "for he has died. I saw when
half thy portion had gone, that thy quota was put into thy trunk, and tho
without any head on thee, for thy soulfriend died, and anyone without a
soulfriend is a body without a head; and eat no more till thou gettest a
soulfriend."

Amra Plea a convent of Brigit's which is on the brink of the sea of Wight, or
the Tyrrhene (sea), and its Rule is that of Brigit's community. It happened
in this manner: Brigit despatched seven persons to learn the Rule of Peter and
Paul, for God did not determine that she should go. And they brought
not the Rule. So she sent eastward a third time, together with her blind boy,
for everything he used to hear he remembered. When they reached the
sea of Wight, a storm fell upon them, so they let down their anchor, which stuck
on the peak of the oratory. They cast a lot among themselve as to
who was going down, and it fell to the blind (boy). He loosed the anchor, and
remained there to the end of a year, learning the Rule, till the rest of
the party came to him from Rome, and a storm fell upon them again in the same
place, so they let down an anchor,and the blind boy came up from
below with the Rule of Plea and with a beautiful bell, and it is the Rule of
Plea that abides today.

Now Brigit was fain to have the orders of penitence conferred upon her; so she
went to Bri Eile, accompanied by seven nuns, since she had heard that
Bishop Mel was there. When they arrived, Bishop Mel was not there, but had gone
into the district of the Hui Neill. So she fared forth on the morrow
with Mac caille before her as a guide to Moin Faithnig. Brigit wrought so that
the bog became a smooth flowery plain for them. When they drew nigh
the place wherein Bishop Mel was biding Brigit told Mac caille that she would
take a veil on her head so that she might not come unveiled to the
clerics; and that may be the veil that is commemorated here. Now after reaching
the clerics a fiery column flamed from her head to the ridge of the
church. Said Mac caille: "This is the famous nun of Leinster, even Brigit." "My
welcome to her," quoth Bishop Mel: "'Tis I," quoth he, "that prophesied
her in her mother's womb, and 'tis I that will confer the orders upon her."

Once upon a time Bishop Mel came to Dubthach's house and saw Dubthach's wife in
grief. So the Bishop asked, "What is the matter with the
woman?" "Cause of grief I have," she says, "for dearer than I am to Dubthach is
the bondmaid who is washing you." "Thou hast good reason, " says
Bishop Mel, "for thy seed will serve the seed of the bondmaid."

"Why have the nuns come?" asked Bishop Mel. "To have the orders of penitence
conferred on Brigit," says Mac caille. Thereafter the orders were
read out over Brigit, and Bishop Mel bewtowed Episcopal orders upon her, and it
is then that Mac caille set a veil on (her) head. Hence Brigit's
successor is entitled to have Episcopal orders conferred upon her. [These are
the orders of Abbess, with the power of jurisdiction over her own nuns
and also over her churches and lands, but not Sacramental which would allow her
to give Communion. No deacons, priests or bishops are recorded to
have been ordained by her nor does any Bishop claim succession through her or
her successors.]

Beloved and little the month of dear February, which comprises for us those
festivals,

Brigit's festival... Finntains's festival which I have chosen.

Save great Mary, good her fame, Mother of the Lord Jesus,

none under heaven has been found more wondrous than bright-white Brigit.

THE name Brígíd, brigid [in old Irish in text] in Irish, as
we learn from Cormac Mac Cullenan’s ancient Glossary of the Irish tongue, was
given to the goddess of poetry in ancient times. Others will have it to mean a
fiery dart. So much for the name.

Her manner of life is summed up briefly in the Martyrology of Tallaght,which
says, “Brigid was following the manners and the life which holy Mary, mother
of Jesus, had.” And the Martyrology of Donegal,after quoting this
passage, goes on to say: “It was this Brigid too that did not take her mind or
her attention from the Lord for the space of one hour at any time, but was
constantly mentioning Him and ever thinking of Him, as is evident in her own
Life and in the Life of St. Brendan of Clonfert. She was
very hospitable and very charitable to guests and to needy people. She was
humble, and attended to the herding of sheep and early rising, as her Life
proves, and as Cuimin of Condure states. Thus he says:-

“The blessed Brigid loved

Constant piety, which was not prescribed,

Sheep-herding and early rising,

Hospitality towards men of virtues.”

She spent seventy-four years diligently serving the Lord, per­forming signs
and miracles, curing every disease and sickness in general, until she yielded
up her spirit.”

Whosoever wishes to know in greater detail the life of this Saint will find it
in the great work of Fr. John Colgan. He was of the Franciscan order, the same
which had convents at Clane, Kildare, Castledermot, and in several other
places of this county, as well as in nearly every other county in Ireland,
numbering in all about sixty in the middle of the 16th century. This great
man, not being able, for reasons which I need not enter into here, to find at
home the education which he needed, went in search of it to Spain. The greater
part of his life was passed in the Franciscan College of Louvain, founded in
1609 by the generosity of Philip III.,
and the Archdukes Albert and Isabella. There from 1626 to 1658, the
year of his death, he devoted himself to bringing together and illustrating
the Lives of Irish saints. He intended his work to extend over six
folio volumes. Unhappily, he lived to complete only two of these—one the
Lives of the Irish saints whose feast days occur in the three first
months of the year, and another volume, comprising the Lives of three
patrons of Ireland, Patrick, Colum­cille, and Brigid. Of the value set on
these books at the present day we may judge from the fact that Dr. Reeves’
copy of the first fetched, at a sale held a few weeks since in Dublin, £31;
and the other volume was bought a year or two ago from a Dublin bookseller for
£18, and by a lawyer too, who, I am sure, knew well what he was about and
thought his invest­ment a safe one.

Of that second volume, containing the Lives of the three patrons, the
last of the three parts is taken up with the history of St. Brigid, and this
is the storehouse in which those who write of her find ample materials. It
extends from p. 513 to p. 649. It bears the title: The various Acts of St.
Brigid, the Virgin, Abbess of Kildare, founder of the Brigittine Order, and
common patron of all Ireland. Now these Acts comprise six different
Lives of the saints, all of them ancient, some of them from very remote
times.

The first of them is contained in a hymn in very ancient Irish, written by St.
Broegan Claen, abbot of Rosturk, in Ossory, on “The Titles and Miracles of the
Saint.” Side by side with the Irish hymn Colgan gives a Latin translation. As
is the custom in such Irish works of ancient date, it is prefaced by a few
lines telling when, where, and why it was written. “The place,” it says, “in
which this hymn was composed was Slieve Bloom, or Cluan St. Maedog, and it was
composed in the time of Lughaidh, son of Leoghaire, king of Ireland, when
Aelider, son of Dunlang, was king of Leinster; and the reason of its being
composed was that Ultan of Ardbraccan asked Broegan to describe in verse the
acts and virtues of Brigid. It begins thus:—

“ Brigid did not love the pride of life.”

And it goes on:—

“She was not querulous, not evil-minded;

She did not love fierce wrangling such as women practise,

She was not a venemous [venomous – sic] serpent or untruthful,

Nor did she sell the Son of God for things that fade.

She was not harsh to strangers,

She used to treat the wretched lepers kindly;

She built her dwelling on the plain

Which was frequented by vast crowds after her death.

There are two holy virgins in heaven,

Mary and holy Brigid;

May they protect me by their mighty help.”

And so for 53 stanzas of four lines each. Some think this Life was
written so far back as the sixth century. If it was written at the suggestion
of St. Ultan, we must take it to be a century later, i. e. eleven or
twelve hundred years ago.

The second Life is by Cogitosus. It is in Latin prose. Most probably
he was a monk of the monastery of Kildare that was under the rule of St.
Brigid in ancient times, for he describes, in great detail, the architecture,
ornaments, and arrangements of the church, as if lie had it before his eyes
every day. From his omitting all mention of the ravages of the Danes and of
some of the Irish chiefs in the early part of the ninth century, it has been
correctly inferred that he wrote before 835, the year when the foreigners
first plundered Kildare. “Cilldara,” say the Annals of the Four Masters,
“was plundered by the foreigners of Inver Dea, i.e. Wicklow, and
half the church was burned by them.” Cogitosus says, “Kildare was a sanctuary,
or place of refuge, where there could be no danger of the attack of an enemy.”
The Life begins thus: “You oblige me, brethren, to make an attempt to
set down in writing the virtues and deeds of Brigid of holy and blessed
memory, as if I were one of the learned. The burthen you lay on me, lowly and
weak as I am, ignorant too of the niceties of language, is to tell in a
fitting way of her who is the head of nearly all the churches of Ireland, and
the summit towering above all the monasteries of the Scoti; whose power
extends over the whole of Ireland, stretching from sea to sea; the abbess who
dwells in the plain of the Liffey, whom all the abbesses of the Scoti
venerate.” And he ends thus: “I ask pardon from the brethren, and from all who
may read this, for, urged on by obedience, not sup­ported by any excellence of
learning, I have traversed this vast ocean of the virtues of St. Brigid, one
to be dreaded even by the bravest men.” This Life is published in the
Bollandist Acta Sanctorum for February 1st.

The third Life is by St. Ultan, of Ardbraccan, in Meath, the same who
induced St. Breogan to write the metrical Life already mentioned. The
manuscript from which this Life was printed was found by F. Stephen
White, S.J., in a monastery at Ratisbon; it was collated with another found in
the monas­tery of St. Albert, at Cambray. Though there may be some doubts
about the authorship, still that it is very ancient Colgan infers from the
fact that most of the manuscripts which contain it were admitted to be five
hundred years old, some of them seven hundred, in his time, i.e. in
the middle of the seventeenth cen­tury. This would take the composition of it
hack to the year 1000.

The 4th Life is by Anmchad, Latinized Animosus: it is in Latin metre.
Who this Anmchad was — whether he was Bishop of Kildare and died in 980, or
another — we have not sufficient grounds for saying with anything like
certainty. The work seems to be that of one well acquainted with Kildare and
its surroundings, and is more detailed than the others already mentioned. It
begins thus: “Brethren, my mind is disturbed by three things—by love, which
forces me to set down in writing the Life of St. Brigid, so that the great
virtues which she practised, and the wonders which she wrought, may not be
forgotten; next by shame, lest my uncouth and simple language may displease
the learned and wise men who may read, or hear read, what I am going to write.
But fear disturbs me still more, for I am too weak to undertake this work. I
fear the sneers of unjust critics, who will scrutinize this work of mine as
they do their food. But as the Lord ordered the poor among the people to offer
to Him things mean and worthless in themselves for the building of the
tabernacle, should not we too make an offering to build up His Church? And
what is it but the congregation of the just?”

The 5th Life is the work of Laurence of Durham, a Benedic­tine monk,
who lived about the year 1100. It was taken from a manuscript in the Irish
College of Salamanca, the same which the Marquis of Bute lately published in a
magnificent quarto volume, edited by the Bollandists.

Lastly, there is the Life by St. Caelan, a monk of Iniscealtra, in
the Shannon, near Scariff. It is in Latin hexameters. It was discovered by an
Irish Benedictine in the library of the mother-house of the Order, at Monte
Cassino. The author lived in the first half of the eighth century. Prefixed to
it is a beautiful poem on Ireland by St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole, of whom
Miss Stokes has given an account in her last book, Six Months in the
Apennines, who lived a century later.

Besides, there are most valuable appendices:—

I. Offices to be said on the feast—one printed in Venice, in 1522; another in
Paris, in 1622; a third in Genoa, not dated; a fourth used by the Canons of
St. John of Lateran.

2. Extracts from the Lives of other saints relating to St. Brigid.

3. Accounts of her ancestors, death, her birthday, the number of years she
lived, her place of burial.

4. The devotion to the Saint in Ireland and in other countries.

5. The history of the church of Kildare, its bishops, and the ravages by the
Danes.

These are the Lives given by Colgan in the Trias. I should
weary you if I enumerated to you the others that are now known, not only those
written by her own countrymen, as that of Dr. Rothe, bishop of Ossory, On
Brigid, the Worker of Miracles, but by French, Italian, German, Flemish,
English, and Scottish writers. Even in our time her life has been written by
Rev. S. Baring-Gould and by Dr. Forbes, bishop of Brechin. I need hardly say
that no subject is oftener met with in our ancient Irish manuscripts than that
of St. Brigid’s life. Dr. Whitley Stokes has published an ancient Irish
Life of the Saint from the Book of Lismore. Those who wish to
know the Saint’s life in detail, and the literature connected with it, will
find all they can desire in the Rev. Canon O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish
Saints, ii. 1.

The pedigree of St. Brigid is given in the Book of Leinster. She was
the daughter of Dubtach, son of Demri, son of Bresil, son of Den, son of Conla,
son of Art Corb, son of Cairbre, son of Cormac, son of Enghus Mean, son of
Eochaidh Finn, son of Feidlimidh Rechtmar, who was ardrigh or chief monarch of
Ireland, A.D.111. Her father is said to
have been a great and mighty chief, Dux magnus et potens. Dr. Todd gives her
genealogy and that of St. Columba, and shows they were descended from a common
ancestor, Ugony Mor, supreme monarch of Ireland
A.M.4546. Her mother, Brotseach, is said to have been a slave; but it
is far more probable that she too was of noble birth, being the daughter of
Dallbronach of the Dail Concobair in South Bregia. The Martyrology of
Donegal says St. Ultan of Ardbraccan was her brother. Her birthplace was
Fochart Muirthemhne, now Fochart, which is three miles north-west of Dundalk;
the dun there was possibly the site of her father’s dwelling. There are
remains of an old church dedicated to her, and close by is a holy well bearing
her name, surmounted by a conical roof. Whether this building is of very
remote date I cannot say, not having yet seen it. A stone, too, is pointed out
in which it is said she was laid im­mediately after her birth. Such another
stone we find at Gartan, the birthplace of St. Columba. The people of Donegal
think that by lying on it before they set out for a foreign land, they will be
freed from all danger of home-sickness. St. Bernard, in his Life of St.
Malachy, makes mention of “the village of Fochart, which they say is the
birthplace of Brigid the virgin.” This is close to the spot where Edward Bruce
was slain in the year 1318.

Her parents wished to give her in marriage to a chief who sought her as wife.
But she desired to devote herself wholly to the service of God and the poor.
Other maidens followed her example, and joined her. They went to St. Macaille,
bishop of Hy Failge. One of his clerics told him who she was, and why she and
her companions had come to him. He placed the veil on her head, in token of
her consecration to God in the re­ligions state. So St. Broegan Claen, in his
hymn:

Posuit bonis avibus Maccalleus velum

Super caput sanctae Brigidae,

Clarus est in ejus gestis.

It would seem that she founded a religious establishment first
near Uisneagh, in Westmeath. After a while she went, with her disciples, to
Connaught, and dwelt in Magh Aoi, a district between Elphin and Roscommon,
possibly at a place now bearing her name, called Killbride, in the parish of
Kil­lacken. The people of Leinster, hearing of the wonders she wrought,
besought her to return to her native province, and she determined to establish
her monastery among them. She was welcomed by all. Drum Criadh seemed to her a
fit place for her purpose; a large oak spread its branches around. “This,”
Animosus tells us, “she loved very much, and she blessed it. Its stem and
roots remain to this day.” The date of her settling there is not certain; it
is presumed to have been 470; others say 480 and 484. This house, small and
mean at first, grew to a great size, and soon it became the head of some
hundreds of such houses, scattered throughout the country. Owing to her great
repute, Kildare was for a while the metro­politan see of Leinster

The precise date of her death is not known. We shall not be much astray if we
take that given by Colgan, namely, A.D.
523; nor is it known what her age was at her death. Colgan, who set down her
birth as 439, would,, consequently, make her more than fourscore, while others
say she died at the age of seventy.

Cogitosus says she was buried at Kildare. Indeed, he describes the shrines in
which her remains and those of St. Con­laeth, the first bishop of this See,
were preserved. He says they were ornamented with gold and silver, and
precious stones; and crosses of gold and silver were suspended close by, one
on the right side, the other on the left. He goes on to describe how the
church grew in size, its extent, and the different parts and divisions of it;
the door by which the priest, “cum regulari schola,” with his school of
religious, entered, that by which the men entered, and the third, by which the
women were admitted.

I am aware that some have held she was buried at Downpatrick immediately after
her death; but that can hardly be, from what I have said above. Except by the
fact of her relics being preserved at Kildare, it is impossible to account for
“the vast crowds, the numberless multitudes, that came there from all the
provinces of Ireland on her feast day, some for the plentiful banquets given
them; others who were sick and diseased, coming to get back their health;
others with gifts. All these came on the 1st of February, the day she cast off
the burthen of the flesh, and followed the Lamb of God to the heavenly
dwelling.” So Cogitosus. Later, very possibly to preserve her relics from the
devastations of the Danes, from which Kildare seemed to have suffered oftener
than any other place, they may have been removed to Down. Colgan thinks the
removal may have taken place in the ninth century; and so the words of the
distych would be verified—

Hi tres in Duno tumulo tumulantur in uno,

Brigida, Patricius, atque Columba pius.

Others will have it that John De Courcy got some of her relics transported
there, in order to increase the importance of Down, which was the capital of
his possessions. It would seem that the precise place where the bodies of the
three Saints were laid was somehow forgotten. It is said that it was revealed
to Bishop Malachy in 1189, and that the remains were transferred with great
solemnity into the interior of the church soon after. When the relics of these
Saints were destroyed, in the sixteenth century, during the deputyship of Lord
Leonard Gray, St. Brigid’s head was saved by some of the clergy, who carried
it to Neustadt, in Austria. In 1587 it was presented to the church of the
Society of Jesus at Lisbon by the Emperor Rudolph
II.

A few words in conclusion on the extent of the veneration shown to this saint.
“So famous is the renown of this holy virgin,” says Hector Boetius, “that the
Scots, the Picts, the Irish, and those who live near them, the English, put
her next after the Virgin Mother of God.” And Alanus Copus: “She is most
famous, not only among the Scots, the English, and the Irish, but churches are
named after her throughout the whole world.” “Her feast,” F. Stephen White
tells us, “was cele­brated in every cathedral church from the Grisons to the
German Sea, for nearly a thousand years.” Cogitosus, in a passage given above,
speaks of the veneration in which she was held by all the abbesses of the
Scoti. The Book of Leinster gives a list of some thirty religious
houses of women which were under her obedience in ancient times. Here are some
places in the diocese of Dublin which still bear her name. We have Bride’s
Church, a parish church, Bride’s street, Bride’s alley, Bride’s hospital;
chapels dedicated to St. Brigid at Killo­sery, Swords, Ward, Tully, Tallaght,
Kilbride near Rathfarnham. In Kildare—Kildare itself, Rosenallis, Cloncurry,
Rathbride, Rathdrum. At Armagh there was a church and convent of women bearing
her name, of which Dr. Reeves speaks in his Ancient Churches of Armagh.
Wells bearing her name: Bride street, St. Margaret’s, Clondalkin, Swords,
Clonskeagh, Rosslare, Ballysadare, Ballintobber, Kilcock, Buttevant, Tuam,
Birchfield, near Ennistymon. Hospitals—Kilmainham, Carrickfergus, Dungarvan,
Kells, and Galway. In the Ordnance Survey list of Irish townlands there are
thirty-six Kilbrides. In Australia, America, wherever the Irish people are—and
where are they not?—will be found churches, and schools, and convents bearing
her name; no diocese without one at least; in some several, as in the diocese
of Boston, four churches. And if we go to the Continent of Europe, we shall
find her name wherever Irish missionaries have set foot—at Amiens, St. Omer,
Besancon, Tours, Cologne, Fulda, at Fossey, in the diocese of Namur, at
Seville, and Lisbon. An interesting fact bearing on what I have just said has
been told me by the parish priest of Kildare. Very lately he received a letter
from a parish priest in the neighbourhood of Aix-la-Chapelle, requesting of
him a relic, however small, of St. Brigid; his parish church was dedicated to
her, and on her feast, February 1st, there was a great concourse of the people
to it in her honour. Few things are more touching than the casual inscription
which one meets with at times on the margin of an old manuscript in St. Gall
or Milan, the work of an Irish scribe in a foreign land; his labour is tedious
and trying, working out these endless spirals and convolutions of the Opus
Hibernicum; or it may be that a feeling of home-sickness has suddenly come on
him, a fond longing to see once more “the fair hills of Eire,” and he stops
awhile, and instinctively turns his thoughts to her who is the pride and glory
of his race, “Margareta Hiberniae,” the pearl of Ireland, and its protectress,
and he writes: “St. Brigid, aid me in the laborious task which I have
undertaken,” or “St. Brigid, pray for us.”

The Breedoge.—Can anyone inform me if the old custom of
carry­ing round “The Breedoge” on St. Bridget’s Eve or Day (the 1st of
February) is still kept up? Formerly, I am told, a figure was dressed up to
represent the patron saint of Kildare, St. Bridget. This figure was called
“The Breedoge” (Bride Oge), or “Young Bridget,” and carried round by the young
people from house to house asking for coppers, in the same way as the wren on
a holly hush is carried round on St. Stephen’s Day. The result of the day’s
round was spent in a jollification. I believe this was a local custom peculiar
to the neighbourhood of Kildare.—WALTER FITZ GERALD.

J.K.A.S. Vol. I, pp. 151-152.

Replies to Queries.

…

“The Breedoge” (JOURNAL, No. 1, p. 40).—In answer to my query
in the County Kildare Archaeological Journal, as to whether the custom of
carrying round the Breedoge was a local one or not, Ireceived a communication
from Dr. P. W. Joyce, M.R.I.A.,of the Educational Department, in which he says
he made inquiries among the pupils concerning it, with the result that he got
written descrip­tions of it in the counties of Kilkenny, Cork, Kerry,
Limerick, and Mayo, so that the custom is very general over Ireland. I have
given below two or three descriptions of this custom, which Ihave selected
from several sent to me by Dr. Joyce: —

One from the Co. Mayo.—The children dress up a figure, and decorate it with
ribbons and flowers. Then four or more of them carry it from house to house on
St. Bridget’s Day,* and ask the housewife to “honour the Breedoge.” One of the
girls hums a tune, and the others dance. It is thought a very niggardly thing
to refuse to honour the effigy. Eggs are taken where the housekeeper has no
coppers to give. There is a spokeswoman for the party, who has a short made-up
speech that she delivers at every house. The money and eggs collected are
evenly divided between the girls, who pur­chase sweets and cakes with the
proceeds. The girls usually choose the day for their rounds; then, at night,
the boys go round with what is ‘called “The Cross.” This is a cross made of
two ropes; a boy catches an end each, and then the four boys dance away to the
music of a flute; like the girls they, too, gather contributions from each
house they visit, and spend the result in a jollification.

Another from the Co. Kerry.—The Breedhogue is an image, supposed to be St
Bridget. It consists of a churn-dash, or broom­stick, padded round with straw,
and covered with a woman’s dress, the head being formed of a bundle of hay,
rolled into the form of a ball; the hands are formed of furze branches, stuck
up in the sleeves. This figure is carried round from house to house by boys
and girls on St Bridget’s Eve. One boy starts a tune, and the others commence
dancing, after which they are given pennies, or more generally eggs, in honour
of the “Biddy.” No matter what the weather is, the Breedhogue is annually
carried round, though since moonlighting commenced in Kerry it had to be
discontinued for some time, owing to the fear of being mistaken for members of
that band.

A Co. Cork description.—In some parts of the county the boys dress up a female
figure in a white dress with gaudy ribbons, which they call “a Breedhoge.”
They are generally themselves queerly dressed and disguised. On St. Bridget’s
Eve they visit from house to house in the parish, particularly those houses
where there are young women who, they say, should get married during Shrove
time. If they are welcomed, and given money for a spree, then they will praise
up and recommend the girls to their male friends; but if not, they will warn
them to avoid them.—WALTER FITZ GERALD.

The practice alluded to by Lord Walter Fitz Gerald at p.40 exists in several
parts of Ireland. It is probably a remnant of the procession in honour of St
Brigid, when her statue would be carried about. The rude figure, if we can
call it such, goes by the name of Breedog, i.e. brigid óig, Brigid
the Virgin.—D. M.

AMONGST the many extraordinary characters with which this country abounds,
such as fools, madmen, onshochs, omadhauns, hair-brains, crack-brains, and
naturals, I have particularly taken notice of one. His character is rather
singular. He begs about Newbridge, county of Kildare: he will accept of any
thing offered him, except money—that he scornfully refuses; which fulfils the
old adage, “None but a fool will refuse money.” His habitation is the ruins of
an old fort or ancient stronghold called Walshe’s Castle, on the road to
Kilcullen, near Arthgarvan, and within a few yards of the river Liffey, far
away from any dwelling. There he lies on a bundle of straw, with no other
covering save the clothes he wears all day. Many is the evening I have seen
this poor crazy crea­ture plod along the road to his desolate lodging. There
is another stamp of singularity on his character: his name is Pat Mowlds, but
who dare attempt to call him Pat? It must be Mr Mowlds, or he will not only be
offended himself, but will surely offend those who neglect this respect. In
general he is of a downcast, melancholy disposition, boasts of being very
learned, is much delighted when any one gives him a ballad or old newspaper.
Sometimes he gets into a very good humour, and will relate many anecdotes in a
droll style.

About two years ago, as I happened to be sauntering along the border of the
Curragh, I overtook this solitary being.

“A fine morning, Mr Mowlds,” was my address.

“Yes, sur, thank God, a very fine morning; shure iv we don’t have fine weather
in July, when will we have it ?“

“What a great space of ground this is to lie waste—what a quantity of
provisions it would produce—what a number of people it would employ and feed!”
said I.

“Oh, that’s very thrue, sur; but was it all sown in pittaties, what would
become ov the poor sheep? Shure we want mutton as well as pittaties—besides,
all the devarshin we have every year.—Why, thin, maybe ye have e’er an ould
newspaper or ballit about ye?“

I said I had not, but a couple of Penny Journals should be at his service
which I had in my pocket.

“Och, any thing at all that will keep a body amused, though I have got a great
many of them; but among them all I don’t see any pitcher or any account of the
round tower furninst ye; nor any account ov the fire Saint Bridget kept
in night an’ day for six hundred years; nor any thing about the raison why it
was put out; nor any thing about how Saint Bridget came by this piece ov
ground; nor any thing about the ould Earl ov Kildare, who rides round the
Curragh every seventh year with silver spurs and silver reins to his horse—God
bless ye, sur, have ye e’er a bit of tobacky?—there’s not a word about this
poor counthry at all.”

My senses were now driven to anxiety—I gave him some tobacco. He then
resumed:—

“Och, an’ faix it’s myself that can tell all about those things. Shure my
grandfather was brother to one of the ould anshint bards who left him all his
books, and he left them to my mother, who left them to me.”

“Well, Mr Mowlds,” I said, “you must have a perfect knowledge of those
things—let us hear something of their contents.”

“Why, thin, shure, sur, I can’t do less. Now, you see, sur, it’s my fashion
like the priests and ministhers goin’ to praich: they must give a bit ov a
text out ov some larned book, and that’s the way with me. So here goes—mind
the words:

“The seventeenth ov March, on King Dermot’s great table,

Where ninety-nine beeves were all roast at a time,

We dhrank to the memory, while we wor able,

Ov Pathrick, the saint ov our nation;

And gaily wor dhrinkin’, roarin’, shoutin’,

Cead mille faltha, acushla machree.

There was Cathleen so fair, an’ Elleen so rare!

With Pathrick an’ Nora,

An’ flauntin’ Queen Dorah!

On Pathrick’s day in the mornin’.

Whoo!!!

County Kildare an’ the sky over it!

Short grass for ever !”

He thus ended with a kick up of his heel which nearly touched the nape of his
neck, and a flourish of his stick at the same time. Then turning to me he
said,

“I am not going to tell you one word about the fire—I am going to tell you how
Saint Bridget got all this ground. Bad luck to Black Noll (a name
given to Cromwell) with his crew ov dirty Sasanachs that tore down the church;
and if they could have got on the tower, that would be down also. No matther—every
dog will have his day. Sit down on this hill till we have a shaugh ov the
dhudheen. In this hill lie buried all the bones ov the poor fellows that
Gefferds killed the time ov the throuble, peace an’ rest to their souls!”

“But to the story, Mr Mowlds,” I said, as I watched him with impatiencc while
he readied his pipe with a large pin.

Now, sur, you persave by the words ov my text that a great feast was kept up
every year at the palace of Castle­dermot on Saint Pathrick’s day. Nothing was
to be seen for many days before but slaughtering ov bullocks, skiverin’ ov
pullets, rowlin’ in ov barrels, an’ invitin’ all the quolity about the
counthry; nor did the roolocks and spalpeens lag behind—they never waited to
be axt; all came to lind a frindly hand at the feast; nor war the kings ov
those days above raisin’ the ax to slay a bullock. King O’Dermot was one ov
those slaughtherin’ kings who wouldn’t cringe at the blood ov any baste.

‘Twas on one ov those festival times that he sallied out with his ax in his
hand to show his dexterity in the killin’ way. The butchers brought him the
cattle one afther another, an’ he laid them down as fast as they could be
dhrained ov their blood.

Afther layin’ down ninety-nine, the last ov a hundhred was brought to him.
Just as he riz the ax to give it the clout, the ox with a sudden chuck drew
the stake from the ground, and away with him over hill an’ dale, with the
swingin’ block an’ a hundred spalpeens at his heels. At last he made into the
river just below Kilcullen, when a little gossoon thought to get on his back;
but his tail bein’ very long, gave a twitch an’ hitched itself in a black knot
round the chap’s body, and so towed him across the river.

Away with him then across the Curragh, ever till he came to where Saint
Bridget lived. He roared at the gate as if for marcy. Saint Bridget was just
at the door when she saw the ox with his horns thrust through the bars.

‘Arrah, what ails ye, poor baste?’ sez she, not seein’ the boy at his tail.

‘Och,’ sez the boy, makin’ answer for the ox, ‘for marcy sake let me in. I’m
the last ov a hundred that was goin’ to be kilt by King O’Dermot for his great
feast to.morrow; but he little knows who I am.’

Begor, when she heard the ox spake, she was startled; but rousin’ herself, she
said,

‘Why, thin, it ‘ud be fitther for King O’Dermot to give me a few ov yees, than
be feedin’ Budhavore: it’s well you come itself.’

‘Ah, but, shure, you won’t kill me, Biddy Darlin,’ sez the chap, takin’ the
hint, as it was nigh dark, and Biddy couldn’t see him with her odd eye; for
you must know, sur, that she was such a purty girl when she was young, that
the boys used to be runnin’ in dozens afther her. At last she prayed for
somethin’ to keep them from tormenting her. So you see, sur, she was seized
with the small-pox at one side ov her face, which blinded up her eye, and left
the whole side ov her face in furrows, while the other side remained as
beautiful as ever

‘Och,’ says the arch wag, ‘shure when I grow up to be a bull I can guard yer
ground.’

‘Ground, in yeagh,’ sez the saint; ‘shure I havn’t as much as would sow a
ridge ov pittaties, barrin’ the taste I have for the girls to walk on.’

‘And did you ax the king for nane?’ sed the supposed ox.

‘In troth I did, but the ould budhoch refused me twice’t.’

‘Well, Biddy honey,’ sez the chap, ‘the third offer’s lucky. Go to-morrow,
when he’s at dinner, and you may come at the soft side ov him. But won’t you
give some refreshment to this poor boy that I picked up on the road? I fear he
is dead or smothered hanging at my tail.’

Well, to be sure, the chap hung his head (moryeah) when he sed this.

Out St Bridget called a dozen ov nuns, who untied the knot, and afther wipin’
the chap as clean as a new pin, brought him into the kitchen, and crammed him
with the best of aitin’ and drinkin’; but while they wor doing this, away
legged the ox. St Bridget went out to ax him some questions consarnin’ the
king, but he was gone.

“Pon my sowkins,’ sed she, ‘but that was a mighty odd thing entirely. Faix, an
it’s myself that will be off to Castledermot to-morrow, hit or miss.’

Well, sur, the next day she gother together about three dozen nuns.

‘Toss on yer mantles,’ sez she, ‘an’ let us be off to Castledermot.’

‘With all harts,’ sez they.

‘Come here, Norah,’ sez she to the sarvint maid. ‘Slack down the fire,’ sez
she, ‘and be sure you have the kittle on. I couldn’t go to bed without my tay,
was it ever so late.’

So afther givin’ her ordhers off they started.

Well, behould ye, sur, when she got within two miles ov the palace, word was
brought to the king that St Bridget and above five hundred nuns were on the
road, comin’ to dine with him.

‘O tundheranounthers,’ roared the king, ‘what’ll I do for their dinner? Why
the dhoul didn’t she come an hour sooner, or sent word yestherday? Such a time
for visithers! Do ye hear me, Paudeen Roorke?’ sez he, turnin’ to his chief
butler: ‘run afther Rory Condaugh, and ax him did he give away the two hind
quarthers that I sed was a little rare.’

‘Och, yer honor,’ sed Paudeen Roorke, ‘shure he gev them to a parcel of
boccochs at the gate.’

‘The dhoul do them good with it! Oh, fire and faggots! what’ll become ov me?—shure
she will say I have no hospita­lity, an’ lave me her curse. But, cooger,
Paudeen: did the roolocks overtake the ox that ran away yestherday?’

‘Och, the dhoul a haugh ov him ever was got, yer honor.’

‘Well, it’s no matther; that’ll be a good excuse; do you go and meet her; I
lave it all to you to get me out ov this hobble.’

‘Naboclish,’ said Paudeen Roorke, cracking his fingers, an’out he started.
Just as he got to the door he met her going to come in. Well
become the king, but he shlipt behind the door to hear what ud be sed. ‘Bedhahusth,’
he roared to the guests that wor going to dhrink his health while his back was
turned.

‘God save yer reverence!’ said St Bridget to the butler, takin’ him for the
king’s chaplain, he had such a grummoch face on him; ‘can I see the king?’

‘God save you kindly!’ sed Paudeen, ‘to be shure ye can.

Who will I say wants him?’ eyeing the black army at her heels.

‘Tell him St Bridget called with a few friends to take pot luck.’

‘Oh, murther!’ sed Paudeen, ‘why didn’t you come an hour sooner? I’m afraid
the meat is all cowld, we waited so long for ye.’

‘Och, don’t make any bones about it,’ sed St Bridget: ‘it’s a cowld
stummock can’t warm its own mait.’

‘Oh, blessed hour!’ groaned the king to himself, ‘how did she know that? Och,
I suppose she knows I’m here too.’

‘Oh, bad scran to me!’ said Paudeen, ‘but we had the best and fattest keepin’
for you, but he ran away.’

‘In troth you needn’t tell me that,’ sez she; ‘I know all about yer doings. If
I’m sent away without my dinner itself, I must see the king.’

Just as she sed this, a hiccup seized the king, so loud that it reached the
great hall. The guests, who war all silent by the king’s order, thought he sed
hip, hip!—so. Such a shout, my jewel as nearly frightened the saint away.

‘In troth,’ ses she, ‘I’d be very sorry to venthur among such a set of
riff-raff, any way. But who’s this behind the door?’ sez she, cockin’ her eye.
‘Oh, I beg pardon!—I hope no inthrusion—there ye are—ye’ll save me the trouble
ov goin’ in.’

‘Oh,’ sed the king (hic), ‘I tuck a little sick in my stum­mock, and came down
to get fresh air. I beg pardon. Why didn’t you come in time to dinner?’

‘I want no dinner,’ said she; ‘I came to speak on affairs ov state.’

‘Why, thin,’ said the king, ‘before ye state them, ye must come in and take a
bit in yer fingers, at any rate.’

‘In troth,’ sez she, ‘I was always used to full and plenty, and not any
scrageen bits; and to think ov a king’s table not having a flaugooloch meal,
is all nonsense: that’s like the taste ov ground I axt ye for some time ago.’

Begor, sur, when she sed that, she gev him such a start that the hiccough left
him.

Just as he sed this, he heard a great shout at a distance: out he pulled his
specks, an’ put them on his nose; when to his joy he saw a whole crowd ov
spalpeens dhrivin’ the ox be­fore them. The king, forgettin’ who he was
spaikin’ to, took off his caubeen, and began to wave it, as he ran off to meet
them.

‘Oh! mahurpendhoul, but ye’re brave fellows,’ sez he; ‘who­ever it was that
cotch him shall have a commission in my life guards. I never wanted a
joint more. Galong, every mo­ther’s son ov yees, and borry all the gridirons
and frying-pans ye can get. Hand me the axe, till I have some steaks tost up
for a few friends.’

So, my jewel, while ye’d say thrap-stick, the ox was down, an’ on the
gridirons before the life was half out ov him.

Well, to be shure, St Bridget got mighty hungry, as she had walked a long way.
She then tould the king that the gen­tlemen should lave the room, as she could
not sit with any one not in ordhers, and they being a little out ov ordher.
So, to make themselves agreeable to her ordhers, they quit the hall, and went
out to play at hurdles.

When the king recollected who he was goin’ to give dinner to, sez he to
himself, ‘Shure no king ought to be above sarvin’ a saint.’ So over he goes to
his wife the queen.

‘And what is that?’ sez the king; ‘shure ye know a king must stand to his word
was it half his kingdom, and how do I know but ye want to chouse me out ov it:
let me know first what ye want.’

‘Well, thin, Mr King O’Dermot,’ sez she, ‘all I want is a taste ov ground to
sow a few pays in.’

‘Well, an’ how much do ye want, yer reverence,’ sez he, all over ov a thrimble,
betune his wife’s dark looks, and the curse he expected from Bridget if he
refused.

‘Not much,’ sez she, ‘for the present. You don’t know how I’m situated. All
the pilgrims going to Lough Dhearg are sent to me to put the pays in their
brogues, an’ ye know I havn’t as much ground as would sow a pint; but if ye
only give me about fifty acres, I’ll be contint.’

‘Fifty acres!’ roared the king, stretching his neck like a goose.

‘Fifty acres!’ roared the queen, knitting her brows; ‘shure that much ground
would fill their pockets as well as their brogues.’

‘There ye’re out ov it,’ said the saint; ‘why, it would’nt be half enough if
they got their dhue according to their sins; but I’ll lave it to yerself.’

‘How much will ye give?’ ‘Not an acre,’ said the queen.

‘Oh, Dorah,’ sed the king, ‘let me give the crathur some.’

‘Not an inch,’ sed the queen, ‘if I’m to be misthress here.’

‘Oh, I beg pardon,’ sez the saint; ‘so, Mr King O’Der­mot, you are undher
petticoat government I see; but maybe I won’t match ye for all that. Now, take
my word, you shall go on penance to Lough Dhearg before nine days is about;
and instead ov pays ye shall have pebble stones and swan shot in yer brogues.
But it’s well for you, Mrs Queen, that ye’re out ov my reach, or I’d send you
there barefooted, with no­thing on hut yer stockings.’

When the king heard this, he fell all ov a thrimble. ‘Oh, Dorah,’ sez he,
‘give the crathur a little taste ov ground to satisfy her.’

‘No, not as much as she could play ninepins on,’ sez she, shakin’ her fist and
grindin’ her teeth together; ‘and I hope she may send you to Lough Dhearg, as
she sed she would.’

‘Why, thin, have ye no feeling for one ov yer own sex?’ sez the saint. ‘I’ll
go my way this minit, iv ye only give me as much as my shawl will cover.’

‘Oh, that’s a horse ov another colour,’ sez the queen; ‘you may have that,
with a heart and a half. But you know very well if I didn’t watch that fool ov
a man, he’d give the very nose off his face if a girl only axt him how he
was.’

Well, sur, when the king heard this, he grew as merry as a cricket. ‘Come,
Biddy,’ sez he, ‘we mustn’t have a dhry bargain, any how.’

Well, sur, after the dhough-an-dheris she went home very well pleased that she
was to get ever a taste ov ground at all, and she promised the king to make
his pinance light, and that she would boil the pays for him, as she did with
young men ov tendher conshinses; but as to ould hardened sinners, she’d keep
the pays till they’d be as stale as a sailor’s bisket.

Well, to be shure, when she got home she set upwards ov a hundhred nuns at
work to make her shawl, during which time she was never heard of. At last,
afther six months’ hard la­bour, they got it finished.

‘Now, sez she, ‘it’s time I should go see the king, that he may come and see
that I take no more than my right. So, taking no one with her barrin’
herself and one nun, off she set.

The king and queen were just sitting down to tay at the parlour window when
she got there.

‘Whoo! talk of the dhoul and he’ll appear,’ sez he. ‘Why, thin, Biddy honey,
it’s an age since we saw ye. Sit down; we’re just on the first cup. Dorah and
myself were afther talkin’ about ye, an’ thought ye forgot us intirely. Well,
did ye take that bit ov ground?’

‘Indeed I’d be very sorry to do the likes behind any one’s back. You must come
to-morrow and see it measured.’

‘Pho! pho!’ sed the queen, ‘such a taste is not worth talkin’ ov; but, just to
honour ye, we shall attind in state to-morrow. Sit down.’

She took up her station betune the king an’ queen: the purty side ov her face
was next the king, an’ the ugly side next the queen.

‘I can’t be jealous ov you, at any rate,’ sod the queen to her­self, as she
never saw her veil off before.

‘Oh, murther!’ sez the king, ‘what a pity ye’re a saint, and Dorah to be
alive. Such a beauty!’

Just as he was starin’, the queen happened to look over at a looking-glass, in
which she saw Biddys pretty side.

‘Hem!’ sez she, sippin’ her cup. ‘Dermot,’ sez she, ‘it’s very much out ov
manners to be stuck with ladies at their tay. Go take a shaugh ov the dhudheen,
while we talk over some affairs ov state.’

Begor, sur, the king was glad ov the excuse to lave them together,
in the hopes St Bridget would convart his
wife.

Well, sur, whatever discoorse they had, I disremember, but the queen came down
in great humour to wish the saint good night, an’ promised to be on the road
the next day to Kildare.

‘Faix,’ sez the saint, ‘I was nigh forgettin’ my gentility to wish the king
good night. Where is he?’

‘Augh, and shure myself doesn’t know, barrin’ he’s in the kitchen.’

‘In the kitchen!’ exclaimed the saint; ‘oh fie!’

‘Ay, indeed, just cock yer eye,’ sez the queen, ‘to the a key-hole: that
dhudheen is his excuse. I can’t keep a maid for him.’

‘Oh! is that the way with him?.—never fear: I’ll make his pinance purty sharp
for that. At any rate call him out an’ let us part in friends.’

So, sur, afther all the compliments wor passed, the king sed he should go see
her a bit ov the road, as it was late: so off he went. The moon had just got
up, an’ he walked alongside the saint at the ugly side; but when he looked
round to praise her, an’ pay her a little compliment, he got sich a fright
that he’d take his oath it wasn’t her at all, so he was glad to get back to
the queen.

Well, sur, next morning the queen ordhered
the long car to be got ready, with plenty ov clean straw in it, as in those
times they had no coaches; then regulated her life guards, twelve to ride
before and twelve behind, the king at one side and the chief butler at the
other, for without the butler she couldn’t do at all, as every mile she had to
stop the whole re­tinue till she’d get refreshment. In the meantime, St
Bridget placed her nuns twenty-one miles round the Curragh. At last the
thrumpet sounded, which gave notice that the king was coming. As soon as they
halted, six men lifted the queen up on the throne, which they brought with
them on the long car. The king ov coorse got up by her side.

‘Well, Dorah,’ sez he in a whisper, ‘what a laugh we’ll have at Biddy, with
her shawl!’

‘I don’t know that neither,’ sez the queen. ‘It looks as thick as Finmocool’s
boulsther, as it hangs over her shoulder.’

‘God save yer highness,’ sed the saint, as she kem up to them. ‘Why, ye sted
mighty long. I had a snack ready for ye at one o’clock.’

‘Och, it’s no matther,’ sez the queen; ‘measure yer bit ov ground, and we then
can have it in comfort.’

So with that St Bridget threw down her shawl, which she had cunningly folded
up.

Now, sur, this shawl was made ov fine sewin’ silk, all net­work, each mesh six
feet square, and tuck thirty-six pounds ov silk, and employed six hundred and
sixty nuns for three months making it.

Well, sur, as I sed afore, she threw it on the ground.

‘Here, Judy Conway, run to Biddy Conroy with this corner, an’ let her make aff
in the direckshin ov Kildare, an’ be shure she runs the corner into the
mon’stery. Here, you, Nelly Murphy, make off to Kilcullen; an’ you, Katty
Farrel, away with you to Ballysax; an’ you, Nelly Doye, away to Arthgarvan;
an’ you, Rose Regan, in the direckshin of Connell; an’ you, Ellen Fogarty,
away in the road to Maddenstown an’you, Jenny Purcel, away to Airfield. Just
hand it from one to t’other.’

So givin’ three claps ov her hand, off they set like hounds, an’ in a minnit
ye’d think a haul ov nuns wor cotched in the net.

Well behould ye, sur, in less than two hours Saint Bridget had the whole
Curragh covered.

‘Now see what a purty kittle of fish you’ve made ov it!’ sez the queen.

‘No, but it’s you, Mrs Queen O’Derrnot, ‘twas you agreed to this.’

‘Ger out, ye ould bosthoon,’ sez the queen, ‘ye desarve it all: ye might aisy
guess that she’d chouse ye. Shure iv ye had a grain ov sinse, ye might
recollect how yer cousin King O’Toole was choused by Saint Kavin out ov all
his ground, by the saint stuffin’ a lump ov a crow into the belly ov the ould
goose.’

‘Well, Dorah, never mind; if she makes a hole, I have a peg for it. Now,
Biddy,’ sez he, ‘though I gave ye the ground, I forgot to tell ye that I only
give it for a certain time. I now tell ye from this day forward you shall only
have it while ye keep yer fire in.’”

Here I lost the remainder of his discourse by my ill man­ners. I got so
familiar with Mr Mowlds, and so interested with his story, that I forgot my
politeness.

“And what about the fire, PAT ?” said I, without consideration.

Before I could recollect the offence, he turned on me with the eyes of a
maniac—

“The dhoul whishper nollege into your ear. Pat! — (hum)

—Pat!—Pat!—this is freedom, with all my heart.”

So saying, he strode away, muttering something between his teeth. However, I
hope again to meet him, when I shall be little more cautious in my address.

St. Brigid ('!), Feb. 1,
born about the middle of the 5th century, died in or before 525
(breeyith, Bhide, Bridget, Brighit,
Brigida, Briid, Bkitta, Bryde, Brydock ; in France,
Bhigitte ; in Holland,
Brie, Brighe ; the Mary of
Ireland), the "Fiery Dart." Patron of Ireland, Leinster, Kildare, of the family
of Douglas, and of cattle and dairies. The dedications in her name are very
numerous in Ireland and on the western side of Great Britain. Represented (1)
with flames playing round her head; (2) with a cow and a large bowl.

The greatest of all the Irish
saints, except St. Patrick. Founder of the first nunnery in Ireland, and chief
over many monasteries for both sexes. Bishop Conlaeth, or Conlian, at the time
head of the bishops and abbots, attended to the spiritual interests of her nuns
and the services of her church.

Montalembert says that Ireland
was evangelized by two slaves, Patrick and Bridgid; that Brigid was twice sold,
was flogged, insulted, and subjected to the hardest labour required of a female
slave in those days; she learnt mercy in the school of suffering and oppression;
she became a nun, but by no means a recluse; she travelled all over Ireland, and
had frequent and important intercourse with all sorts and conditions of persons,
but always in the interest of souls, or with a view to helping the- unfortunate.
She was honoured with the friendship and confidence of the holiest and most
learned Irishmen of her time, among whom tradition places St. Ere, bishop of
Slane, St. Mel of Ardagh, Cailaet, bishop of Kildare, St. Ailbe of Emly, St.
Brendan of Clonfert, St. Gildas, who sent her a small bell cast by himself. St.
Finnian was also, her contemporary, and once preached before her and her nuns at
Kildare. She is believed to have been contemporary with St. Patrick, although
much younger. There is considerable uncertainty as to her dates, and still more
ns to his. She died, upwards of seventy, in or before 525. In an old Life of St.
Patrick, it is said that she fell asleep while he was preaching, and that he
made her tell her dream, which he interpreted as referring to the fnture history
of Ireland. One legend says that he taught her to play on the harp, and that she
embroidered a shroud for him at his- own request, and took it to him at the
monastery of Saball; he then charged her to bless Ireland for thirty years after
his death.

Here are some of the countless traditions
concerning St. Brigid. She was the daughter of Dubtach, a nobleman of Leinster,
who was descended from Eochard, brother of King Conn of the Hundred Battles; her
mother was Broet- seach or Brocessa O'Connor, his slave. Dubtach's wife had
several sons, but no daughter, and her jealousy of Brocessa was increased by the
prophecy that Brocessa would give birth to a daughter who should be very
illustrious. She insisted that Brocessa should be sent away. So Dubtach sold her
to a magician or bard at Faugher, near Dun- dalk, with the condition that her
child should be returned to him. The night that she arrived in her new home, a
holy man came begging for hospitality. He passed the whole night in prayer, and
in the morning told his host he had seen a globe of fire resting over the place
where the servant slept. One day the bard iavited his king and qneen to supper,
bnt the queen could not come because she was hourly expecting to have a child.
The friends and servants of the king inquired of the bard what sort of child the
qneen would have, and when it wonld be born. He told them that it would have no
equal in Ireland if it were born at sunrise, neither in the house nor ont of the
house. At midnight the queen gave birth to a son. Very early in the morning,
Brocessa went and milked the cows as usual. She returned with a large pail of
milk. As she entered her master's door, having one foot in the house and one
foot out, she fell down on the threshold, and there, at the moment of sunrise,
she was delivered of a daughter, Brigid, whose infancy was illustrated by
prodigies, and who was evidently under the immediate protection of Heaven.
Flames often filled her room or surrounded her head, but did not hart her or
destroy anything. No food was found to suit her until the magician set apart a
beautiful white cow for her use, and got a Christian woman to milk it. According
to agreement, the bard cent the child Brigid to her father. Once she went to
help her mother, who was making butter and taking care of the cows some distance
from her master's house. As fast as the butter was made,

Brigid, who said, " Every guest
is Christ," gave it all away to beggars and travellers. After a time the
magician and his wife came to the farm to fetch the butter. When Brigid saw what
a large cask they had brought to carry it away in, she was much embarrassed,
knowing she had only the supply of one day and a half; however, she received
them cheerfully, washed their feet, and gave them. food. She then went to her
own cell and prayed, and afterwards brought the butter she had to the bard's
wife, who laughed at her and said, " Is that all the butter yon have made in so
many days?" Brigid said, "Fill the cask: you shall have butter enough." The
woman began putting the butter into her large receptacle out of Brigid's little
one, and very soon it was quite full. When the magician saw that miracle, ho
said to Brigid, " You shall have all the butter for yourself, and the twelve
cows which you have milked shall be yours also." Brigid said, " Keep your cows,
and give me my mother's freedom." The magician answered, " The cows and the
butter and your mother are yours." Then he believed in Christ and was baptized,
and Brigid gave all his gifts to the poor, and returned to Dubtach with her
mother. Her father offered to sell her to tho king, saying that he wished to get
rid of her because she gave to the poor everything she could lay her hands upon.
While they were in the house discussing the matter, Brigid was left in the
carriage at the door. A beggar asked her for alms, and as she had no money she
gave him her father's sword, which was a gift from the king. When he came back,
she said that what she gave to the poor she gave to Christ, that her father and
the king ought to be glad that the sword was so honoured, and that if she could,
she would give them both, and everything that belonged to them, to Christ. The
king then gave her a new sword for her father.

Some Christians, travelling
through the country, were taken by Dubtach's followers. As they could not give a
satisfactory account of themselves, they were condemned to death as rogues and

spies. Brigid said they were minstrels, and bade them play
on her harp. " Alas," said the strangers, " we have never learnt music." " Fear
not," replied Brigid, " play." And she blessed their hands, laying her own upon
them ; whorenpou the strangers played and sang more beautifully than any
minstrels that had ever been heard in that hall.

When she was sixteen, her wisdom
and beauty wore praised throughout the land. Her father, who had no other
daughter, wished her to make nu advantageous marriage; but Brigid, being
determined to consecrate her life to the service of God and to works of mercy,
prayed that some deformity might come upon her to deliver her from liability to
marriage. Immediately one of her eyes burst in her head, thus destroying all her
beauty. Dubtach then permitted her to take the veil. As she knelt to receive it,
the wood of the altar became green at her touch, and for years afterwards
effected miraculous cures. At the same time, her lost eye was restored, and a
pillar of fire appeared above her head. Her enthusiasm soon led other women to
join her. At first they lived together at Kilbrighde, or Kilbude, near the sea.
There are many places of this name in Ireland, but this is supposed to be the
one in the county Waterford. After a time, Brigid built herself a cell under a
goodly oak, and added a church and other buildings for her nuns. This was
Kildare, Kil Dara, the cell or chapel of the oak. There were already communities
of men, and there were churches and Christian schools, but this was the first
convent of women in Ireland. The dwellings of the nuns were probably a number of
huts or cells close to the church. The church was divided into three parts, ono
for monks, one for nuns, and one for the people.

Brigid always
showed a deep and tender sympathy for slaves and captives, whose troubles she
knew by experience. Once she went to ask for the liberty of a captive; the
master was absent, but she made friends with his foster-father and brothers by
teaching them to play the harp, and had already a strong party in her favour
when the chief came home.

Charmed by her music, he begged
her blessing, which was granted on condition of his setting his prisoner at
liberty.

She took a great interest in
young persons, and delighted to encourage them in virtue and piety. Ono day, as
she was standing outside the monastery with some of her nuns, she saw a young
man, named Nennidh, running very fast. " Bring that youth to me," commanded the
abbess. He came with apparent reluctance. " Whither so fast ? " asked Brigid.
Nennidh answered, with a laugh, that he was running to the kingdom of heaven. "
I wish," said Brigid, " that I were worthy to run there with you to-day. Pray
for me, that I may arrive there." The young man, touched by her words, begged
her to pray for him, and resolved to embrace a religions life. Brigid then
foretold that ho was. the person from whom sho should receive the holy viaticum
on the day of her death. Ho took great pains to keep his hand worthy of so great
an honour, and was called Nennidh, the clean-handed. He wrote a hymn in honour
of St. Brigid, preserved in Colgan's Acts of the Saints, Jan. 18. He is
numbered among the saints, but is not the great St. Nennidh, surnamed
Laobh-deare, the one-eyed, or squinting.

Many of the stories of the life
of St. Brigid relate to the journeys and eicur- sions she used to make in her
carriage. On one of these journeys she saw a poor family carrying heavy burdens
of wood, and with her usual kindness gave them her horses. She and her sisters
sat down by the wayside, and she told them to dig there for water. As soon as
they did so, a fountain sprang from the earth, and presently a chieftain passed
by and gave his horses to Brigid.

Another time she happened to be
alone in a friend's house when some persona camo begging for bread. She looked
about for any of tho household, but could see no ono except a boy lying on the
ground. He was deaf and paralytic, but Brigid did not know it She said to him, "
Boy, thou knowost where the keys are ? " He said, " Yes, I know." The holy woman
then told him to go and serve these poor persons, which
he did, and hail his faculties ever after.

In a time of famine she went with
some of her nuns and asked for provisions from Bishop Ybar. He had no bread, so
he set before her a stone with some lard. The stone became bread, and Brigid and
the bishop were satisfied to make a meal of it, but two of the virgins, desiring
to eat flesh, hid it, and they fonnd it turned into serpents. Brigid rebuked
them, and on their repentance the serpents again became bread.

She had power over wild beasts.
Once when a wolf had killed a sheep-dog, she made him take the place of his
victim, and drive the sheep without frightening them.

Cows, calves, milk, and butter
figure largely in the legends of this saint. A number of strangers arrived at
her home, and as she had nothing to give them but what she could get from one
cow, she milked it throe times, and it gave as much as three cows. It is in
allusion to this legend that she appears in some pictures holding a large bowl.

She seems to have shown severity
or inflicted punishment only when the objects of her anger wore guilty of un-
kindness. For instance, when a woman refused to wash a leper whom Brigid
intended to heal, she transferred the leprosy to the unkind one, but afterwards
prayed for her, and thereby healed her. One day two lepers came begging, and she
gave them a calf Ono of them said he did not want half a calf, and did not care
to have it unless be might have it all to himself. Brigid bode him take the
animal, and said to the other, "Wait with me a little while, and see if God will
send you anything to make up for your share of the calf." She procured another
calf for him, and he went and overtook the ungrateful leper. They soon came to a
great rivor, and the good leper and his calf arrived safely at the other side,
but the thankless one and his calf were washed away and drowned.

Her hospitality and charity were
unbounded. The fame of her holiness, her miracles, and her prophetic powers
extended to Scotland. It is said that King

Nectan, being driven ont of
Scotland, went to Ireland, and there visited Brigid, and asked for her prayers.
She promised that if he went back to his own country God would have mercy upon
him, and he should possess the kingdom of the Picts in peace.

She was upwards of seventy when
she died. She was buried at Kildare, and translated to Downpatriok, where she
was laid beside St. Patrick and St. Columba.

It is a mistake to identify her
with St. Bbigid Of Glastonbury or
St. Brigid Of Abernethy. Several
other saints of the same name, contemporary with her, or nearly so, are
mentioned hy Colgan. She is honoured in many places and calendars on the
Continent, but is perhaps not so universally known there as
St. Brigid op
Sweden.

After her death, the sacred fire,
which she had kept perpetually burning, and which caused the church of Kildare
to be called tho house of fire, was kept up on her tomb until 122(1, when sundry
accusations of superstition and heathenism having arisen against the custom,
Henry London, archbishop of Dublin, ordered it to be put out to avert scandal.
It was relighted and kept burning until the time of Henry VIII., when the nuns
were banished from Kildare, their goods confiscated, and the churches
desecrated.

Her Life was written
immediately after her death by Brogan (called also Cloen). Another biography of
her was written in the same century, another in the following, and so on. Five
Lives are given in the Bollandist collection. E.M. Bede, Mart.
Colgan, AA.SS. Hibernise. Forbes, Kalendars. Monta- lembert,
Monks of the West. Butler. Cahier.

OH Glorious St. Brigid, Mother of the Churches of Erin, patroness of our
missionary race, wherever their lot may be cast I be thou our guide in the paths
of virtue, protect us amid temptation, shield us from danger. Preserve to us the
heritage of chastity and temperance ; keep ever brightly burning on the altar of
our hearts the sacred Fire of Faith, Charity, and Hope, that thus we may emulate
the ancient piety of Ireland's children, and the Church of Erin may shine with
peerless glory as of old. Thou wert styled by our fathers " The Mary of
Erin," secure for us by thy prayers the all-powerful protection of the
Blessed Virgin, that we may be numbered here among her most fervent clients, and
may hereafter merit a place together with Thee and the countless Saints of
Ireland, in the ranks of her triumphant children in Paradise. Amen.

And still from heavenly
choirs thou steal'st by night
To tell sweet Aves in the woods unseen,

To tend the shrine-lamps
with thy flambeau white
And set thy tender footprints in the green.

Thus sing our birds with
holy note and pure,
As though the loves of angels were their theme;

Thus burn to throbbing
flame our sacred fires

With heats that still
endure ;
Thence hath our daffodil its golden gleam,
From thy dear mindfulness that never tires !

LADY GILBERT (ROSA MULHOLLAND)

A Popular and gifted Irish
poetess and novelist of the day, born in Belfast about fifty years ago. She has
published one volume of delicate verse
(vagrant Verses, 1886); all her other writings, which are numerous, being
stories. In 1891 she married Mr. (afterwards Sir J. T.) Gilbert, the noted Irish
archaeologist.

A Treasury of Irish
Poetry in the English Tongue.,
Stopford Augustus Brooke, Thomas William Rolleston, Smith, Elder, 1900,
pg. 408.

S. Bridget, or Bride as she is
called in England, is the Patroness of Ireland, and was famous throughout
northern Europe. Leslie says, " She is held in so great honour by Picts,
Britons, Angles, and Irish, that more churches are dedicated to God in her
memory, than to any other of the saints;" and Hector Boece says, that she was
regarded by Scots, Picts, and Irish as only second to the B. Virgin Mary.
Unfortunately, little authentic is known of her. The lives extant are for the
most part of late composition, and are collected from oral traditions of various
value. One life is attributed, however, to Bishop Ultan Mac Concubar, d. circ.
662 ; another, a metrical one, is by the monk Chilian, circ. 740 ; another by
one Cogitosus, is of uncertain date ; another is by Laurence, prior of Durham,
d. 1154; and there is another, considered ancient, by an anonymous author.]

Ireland was, of old, called the
Isle of Saints, because of the great number of holy ones of both sexes who
flourished there in former ages; or, who, coming thence, propagated the faith
amongst other nations. Of this great number of saints the three most eminent,
and who have therefore been honoured as the special
patrons of the island, were S. Patrick their apostle, S. Columba, who converted
the Picts, and S. Bridget, the virgin of Kildare, whose festival is marked in
all the Martyrologies on the 1st day of February.

This holy virgin was born about
the middle of the fifth century, in the village of Fochard, in the diocese of
Armagh. Her father was a nobleman, called Dubtach, descended from Eschaid, the
brother of King Constantine of the Hundred Battles, as he is surnamed by the
Irish historians. The legend of her origin is as follows, but it is not to be
relied upon, as it is not given by Ultan, Cogitosus, or Chilian of Inis-Keltra.1
Dubtach had a young and beautiful slave- girl, whom he dearly loved, and she
became pregnant by him, whereat his wife, in great jealousy and rage, gave him
no peace till he had sold her to a bard, but Dubtach, though he sold the
slave-girl, stipulated with the purchaser that the child should not go with the
mother, but should be returned to him when he claimed it.

Now one day, the king and queen
visited the bard to ask an augury as to the child they expected shortly, and to
be advised as to the place where the queen should be confined. Then the bard
said, " Happy is the child that is born neither in the house nor out of the
house!" Now it fell out that Brotseach, the slave-girl, was shortly after
returning to the house with a pitcher of fresh warm milk from the cow, when she
was seized with labour, and sank down on the threshold, and was delivered
neither in the house nor out of the house, and the pitcher of warm sweet milk,
falling, was poured over the little child.

When Bridget grew up, her father
reclaimed her, and treated her with the same tenderness that he showed to his
legitimate children. She had a most compassionate heart,

1 Moreover it contradicts the
positive statements of more reliable authors, that Bridget was the legitimate
daughter of Brotseach, the wife of Dubtach.

and gave to every beggar what he asked, whether it were hers
or not . This rather annoyed her father, who took her one day with him to the
king's court, and leaving her outside, in the chariot, went within to the king,
and asked his majesty to buy his daughter, as she was too expensive for him to
keep, owing to her excessive charity. The king asked to see the girl, and they
went together to the door. In the meantime, a beggar had approached Bridget, and
unable to resist his importunities, she had given him the only thing she could
find, her father's sword, which was a present that had been made him by the
king. When Dub- tach discovered this, he burst forth into angry abuse, and the
king asked, " Why didst thou give away the royal sword, child ?" " If beggars
assailed me," answered Bridget calmly, "and asked for my king and my father, I
would give them both away also." "Ah !" said the king, " I cannot buy a girl who
holds us so cheap."

Her great beauty caused her to be
sought in marriage by a young noble of the neighbourhood, but as she had already
consecrated herself by vow to Jesus, the Spouse of virgins, she would not hear
of this match. To rid herself of the importunity of her suitor, she prayed to
God, that He would render her so deformed that no one might regard her. Her
prayer was heard, and a distemper fell on one of her eyes, by which she lost
that eye, and became so disagreeable to the sight, that no one thought of giving
her any further molestation.1 Thus she easily
gained her father's consent that she should consecrate her virginity to God, and
become a nun. She took with her three other virgins of that country, and bidding
farewell to her friends, went in 469 to the holy bishop Maccail, then at Usny
hill, Westmeath; who gave the sacred veil to her and her companions, and
received

1
But this legend is given very differently in another Life, and Cogitosus and the
6rst and fourth Lives do not say anything about it. their profession of
perpetual virginity. S. Bridget was then only fourteen years old, as some
authors assert . The Almighty was pleased on this occasion to declare how
acceptable this sacrifice was, by restoring to Bridget the use of her eye, and
her former beauty, and, what is still more remarkable, and is particularly
celebrated, as well in the Roman, as in other ancient Martyrologies, was, that
when the holy virgin, bowing her head, kissed the dry wood of the feet of the
altar, it immediately grew green, in token of her purity and sanctity. The story
is told of her, that when she was a little child, playing at holy things, she
got a smooth slab of stone which she tried to set up as a little altar; then a
beautiful angel joined in her play, and made wooden legs to the altar, and bored
four holes in the stone, into which the legs might be driven, so as to make it
stand.

S. Bridget having consecrated
herself to God, built a cell for her abode, under a goodly oak, thence called
Kil-dare or the Cell of the Oak; and this foundation grew into a large
community, for a great number of virgins resorted to her, attracted by her
sanctity, and put themselves under her direction. And so great was the
reputation of her virtues, and the place of her abode was so renowned and
frequented on her account, that the many buildings erected in the neighbourhood
during her lifetime formed a large town, which was soon made the seat of a
bishop, and in process of time, the metropolitan see of the whole province.

What the rule embraced by S.
Bridget was, is not known, but it appears from her history, that the habit which
she received at her profession from S. Maccail was white. Afterwards, she
herself gave a rule to her nuns; so that she is justly numbered among the
founders of religious Orders. This rule was followed for a long time by the
greatest part of the monasteries of sacred virgins in Ireland; all acknowledging
our Saint as their mother and mistress, and the monastery of Kildare as the
headquarters of their Order. Moreover, Cogitosus informs us, in his prologue to
her life, that not only did she rule nuns, but also a large community of men,
who lived in a separate monastery. This obliged the Saint to call to her aid out
of his solitude, the holy bishop S. Conlaeth, to be the director and father to
her monks; and at the same time to be the bishop of the city. The church of
Kildare, to suit the requirements of the double monastery and the laity, was
divided by partitions into three parts, Cogitosus says, one for the monks, one
for the nuns, and the third for the lay people.

As S. Bridget was obliged to go
long journeys, the bishop ordained her coachman priest, and the story is told
that one day as she and a favourite nun sat in the chariot, the coachman
preached to them the Word of God, turning his head over his shoulder. Then said
the abbess, " Turn round, that we may hear better, and throw down the reins." So
he cast the reins over the front of the chariot, and addressed his discourse to
them with his back to the horses. Then one of the horses slipped its neck from
the yoke, and ran free; and so engrossed were Bridget and her companion in the
sermon of the priestly charioteer, that they did not observe that the horse was
loose, and the carriage running all on one side. On another occasion she was
being driven over a common near the Liffey, when they came to a long hedge, for
a man had enclosed a portion of the common. Then the man shouted to them to go
round, and Bridget bade her charioteer so do. But he, thinking that they had a
right of way across the newly made field, drove straight at the hedge ; then the
proprietor of the field ran forward, and the horses started, and the jolt of the
chariot threw S. Bridget and the coachman out of the vehicle, and severely
bruised them both. Then the abbess, picking herself up said, " Better to have
gone round; short cuts bring broken bones."

Once a family came to Kildare,
leaving their house and cattle unguarded, that they might attend a festival in
the church, and receive advice from S. Bridget. Whilst they were absent, some
thieves stole their cows, and drove them away.

They had to pass the Liffey,
which was much swollen, consequently the thieves stripped, and tied their
clothes to the horns of the cattle, intending to drive the cows into the river,
and swim after them. But the cows ran away, carrying off with them the clothes
of the robbers attached to their horns, and they did not stop till they reached
the gates of the convent of S. Bridget, the nude thieves racing after them. The
holy abbess restored to them their garments, and severely reprimanded them for
their attempted robbery.

Other strange miracles are
attributed to her, of which it is impossible to relate a tithe. She is said,
after a shower of rain, to have come hastily into a chamber, and cast her wet
cloak over a sunbeam, mistaking it, in her hurry, for a beam of wood. And the
cloak remained there, and the ray of sun did not move, till late at night one of
her maidens ran to her, to tell her that the sunbeam waited its release, so she
hasted, and removed her cloak, and the ray retired after the long departed sun.

Once a rustic, seeing a wolf run
about in proximity to the palace, killed it; not knowing that it was the tame
creature of the king; and he brought the dead beast to the king, expecting a
reward. Then the prince in anger ordered the man to be cast into prison and
executed. Now when Bridget heard this, her spirit was stirred within her, and
mounting her chariot, she drove to the court, to intercede for the life of the
poor countryman. And on the way, there came a wolf over the bog racing towards
her, and it leaped into the chariot, and allowed her to caress it.

Then, when she reached the
palace, she went before the king, with the wolf at her side, and said, " Sire !
I have brought thee a better wolf than that thou hast lost, spare therefore the
life of the poor man who unwittingly slew thy beast." Then the king accepted her
present with great joy, and ordered the prisoner to be released.

One evening she sat with sister
Dara, a holy nun, who was blind, as the sun went down ; and they talked of the
love of Jesus Christ, and the joys of Paradise. Now their hearts were so full,
that the night fled away whilst they spoke together, and neither knew that so
many hours had sped. Then the sun came up from behind Wicklow mountains, and the
pure white light made the face of earth bright and gay. Then Bridget sighed,
when she saw how lovely were earth and sky, and knew that Dara's eyes were
closed to all this beauty. So she bowed her head and prayed, and extended her
hand and signed the dark orbs of the gentle sister. Then the darkness passed
away from them, and Dara saw the golden ball in the east, and all the trees and
flowers glittering with dew in the morning light. She looked a little while, and
then, turning to the abbess, said, " Close my eyes again, dear mother, for when
the world is so visible to the eyes, God is seen less clearly to the soul." So
Bridget prayed once more, and Dara's eyes grew dark again.

A madman, who troubled all the
neighbourhood, came one day across the path of the holy abbess. Bridget arrested
him, and said, " Preach to me the Word of God, and go thy way." Then he stood
still and said, " O Bridget, I obey thee. Love God, and all will love thee.
Honour God, and all will honour thee. Fear God, and all will fear thee." Then
with a howl he ran away. Was there ever a better sermon preached in fewer words.

A very remarkable prophesy of the
heresies and false doctrines of later years must not be omitted. One day Bridget
fell asleep whilst a sermon was being preached by S. Patrick, and when the
sermon was over, she awoke. Then the preacher asked her, " O Bridget, why didst
thou sleep, when the Word of Christ was spoken ? " She fell on her knees and
asked pardon, saying, " Spare me, spare me, my father, for I have had a dream."
Then said Patrick, "Relate thy vision to me." And Bridget said, "Thy hand-maiden
saw, and behold the land was ploughed far and wide, and sowers went forth in
white raiment, and sowed good seed. And it sprang up a white and goodly harvest.
Then came other ploughers in black, and sowers in black, and they hacked, and
tore up, and destroyed that beauteous harvest, and strewed tares far and wide.
And after that, I looked, and behold, the island was full of sheep and swine,
and dogs and wolves, striving with one another and rending one another." Then
said S. Patrick, "Alas, my daughter! in the latter days will come false teachers
having false doctrine; who shall lead away many, and the good harvest
which has sprung up from the Gospel seed we have sown will be trodden under
foot; and there shall be controversies in the faith between the faithful and the
bringers-in of strange doctrine."

Now when the time of her
departure drew nigh, Bridget called to her a dear pupil, named Darlugdach and
foretold the day on which she should die. Then Darlugdach wept bitterly, and
besought her mother to suffer her to die with her. But the blessed Bridget said,
"Nay, my daughter, thou shalt live a whole year after my departure ; and then
shalt thou follow me." And so it came to pass. Having received the sacred
viaticum from the hands of S. Nennidh, the bishop, the holy abbess exchanged her
mortal life for a happy immortality, on February 1st, 525.' Her body was

1 As near as can be ascertained; see
Lanigan, Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, vol. 1, p. 455.

interred in the church of Kildare; where her nuns for some
ages, to honour her memory, kept a fire always burning ; from which that convent
was called the House of Fire, till Henry of London, Archbishop of Dublin, to
take away all occasion of superstition, in 1220, ordered it to be extinguished.

The body of the Saint was
afterwards translated to Down- Patrick, where it was found in a triple vault,
together with the bodies of S. Patrick and S. Columba, in the year 1185. These
bodies were, with great solemnity, translated the following year by the Pope's
legate, accompanied by fifteen bishops, in presence of an immense number of the
clergy, nobility, and people, to a more honourable place of the cathedral of
Down ; where they were kept, with due honour, till the time of Henry VIII., when
the monument was destroyed by Leonard, Lord Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. S.
Bridget's head was saved by some of the clergy, who carried it to Neustadt, in
Austria; and from thence, in 1587, it was taken to the church of the Jesuits at
Lisbon, to whom the Emperor Rudolf II. gave it.

In art, S. Bridget is usually
represented with her perpetual flame as a symbol; sometimes with a column of
fire, said to have been seen above her head when she took the veil.

I have heard many names of St.
Briget, most beloved of Gaelic saints, with whom the month of February is
identified . . . the month of " Bride min, gentle St. Bride "... Brighid
boidheach Muime Chriosd, Bride the Beautiful, Christ's Foster Mother . . .
but there are three so less common that many even of my readers familiar with
the Highland West may not know them. These are " the Fair Woman of February," "
St. Bride of the Kindly Fire," and "St. Bride (or Briget) of the Shores." They
are of the Isles, and may be heard in some of the sgeu- lachdan gaidhealach,
or Gaelic tales, still told among seafaring and hill folk, where the curse
of cheap ignoble periodicals is unknown and books are rare. True, in several of
the isles . . . Colonsay, Tiree, the Outer Hebrides ..." St. Bride of the Shores
" is not infrequent in songs and seasonal hymns, for when her signals are seen
along the grey beaches, on the sandy machars, by the meadow path, the
glen-track, the white shore-road,

the islanders know that the new year is disclosed at last,
that food, warmth, and gladness are coming out of the south. As " the Fair Woman
of February," though whatever other designation St.
Bride goes by, she is often revealed. Her humble yellow fires are lit
among the grasses, on the shore-ways, during this month. Everywhere in the
Gaelic lands " Candlemas-Queen" is honoured at this time. Am Fheill Bhride,
the Festival of St. Briget, was till recently
a festival of joy throughout the west, from the Highland Line to the last weedy
shores of Barra or the Lews: in the isles and in the remote Highlands, still is.

It is an old tale, this
association of St. Briget with February. It goes
further back than the days of the monkish chroniclers who first attempted to put
the disguise of verbal Christian raiment on the most widely-loved and revered
beings of the ancient Gaelic pantheon. Long before the maiden Brigida (whether
of Ireland or Scotland matters little) made her fame as a " daughter of God ";
long before to Colum in lona or to Patrick "the great Cleric" in Ireland "Holy
St. Bride" revealed in a vision the service she
had done to Mary and the Child in far-away Bethlehem in the East; before ever
the first bell of Christ was heard by startled Druids
coming across the hills and forest lands of Gaul, the Gaels worshipped a Brighde
or Bride, goddess of women, of fire, of poetry. When, to-day, a Gaelic islesman
alludes to Briget of the Songs, or when a woman of South Uist prays to Good St.
Bride to bless the empty cradle that is soon to be filled, or when a shennachie
or teller of tales speaks of an oath taken by Briget of the Flame, they refer,
though probably unconsciously, to a far older Brighid than do they who speak
with loving familiarity of Muime Chriosd, Christ's Foster Mother, or
Brighid - nam - Bratta, St. Bride of the Mantle. They refer to one who in
the dim, far-off days of the forgotten pagan world of our ancestors was a noble
and great goddess. They refer to one to whom the women of the Gael went with
offerings and prayers, as went the women of ancient Hellas to the temples of
Aphrodite, as went the Syrian women to the altars of Astarte, as went the women
of Egypt to the milk-fed shrines of Isis. They refer to one whom the Druids held
in honour as a torch bearer of the eternal light, a Daughter of the Morning, who
held sunrise in one hand as a little yellow flame, and in the other held the red
flower of fire without which men would be as the beasts who live in caves and
holes, or as the dark Fomor who have their habitations in cloud and wind
and the wilderness. They refer to one whom the bards and singers revered as
mistress of their craft, she whose breath was a flame, and that flame song: she
whose secret name was fire and whose inmost soul was radiant air, she therefore
who was the divine impersonation of the divine thing she stood for, Poetry.

" St. Bride of the Kindly Fire,"
of whom one may hear to-day as " oh, just Bhrighde m\n Muim (gentle St.
Bride the Foster Mother), she herself an' no other," is she, that ancient
goddess, whom our ancestors saw lighting the torches of sunrise on the brows of
hills, or thrusting the quenchless flame above the horizons of the sea: whom the
Druids hailed with hymns at the turn of the year, when, in the season we call
February, the firstcomers of the advancing Spring are to be seen on the grey
land or on the grey wave or by the grey shores: whom every poet, from the
humblest wandering singer to Oisin of the Songs, from Oisin of the Songs to
Angus £)g on the rainbow or to Midir of the Under-world, blessed, because of the
flame she put in the heart of poets as well as the red
life she put in the flame that springs from wood and peat. None forgot that she
was the daughter of the ancient God of the Earth, but greater than he, because
in him there was but earth and water, whereas in her veins ran the elements of
air and fire. Was she not born at sunrise? On the day she reached womanhood did
not the house wherein she dwelled become wrapped in a flame which consumed it
not, though the crown of that flame licked the high unburn- ing roof of Heaven?
In that hour when, her ancient divinity relinquished and she reborn a Christian
saint, she took the white veil, did not a column of golden light rise from her
head till no eyes could follow it ? In that moment when she died from earth,
having taken mortality upon her so as to know a divine resurrection to a new and
still more enduring Country of the Immortal, were there not wings of fire seen
flashing along all the shores of the west and upon the summits of all Gaelic
hills? And how could one forget that at any time she had but to bend above the
dead, and her breath would quicken, and a pulse would come back into the still
heart, and what was dust would arise and be once more glad.

The Fair Woman of February is
still loved, still revered. Few remember the last fading
traditions of her ancient greatness: few, even, know that she lived before the
coming of the Cross: but all love her, because of her service to Mary in Her
travail and to the newborn Child, and because she looks with eyes of love into
every cradle and puts the hand of peace on the troubled hearts of women: and all
delight in her return to the world after the ninety days of the winter-sleep,
when her heralds are manifest.

What, then, are the insignia of
St. Briget of the Shores? They are simple. They are the dandelion, the lamb, and
the sea-bird, popularly called the oyster-opener. From time immemorial, this
humble, familiar yellow plant of the wayside has been identified with St. Bride.
To this day shepherds, on Am Fheill Bhrighde, are wont to hear among the
mists the crying of innumerable young lambs, and this without the bleating of
ewes, and so by that token know that Holy St. Bride has passed by, coming
earthward with her flock of the countless lambs soon to be born on all the
hillsides and pastures of the world. Fisherfolk on the shores of the west and on
the far isles have gladdened at the first prolonged repetitive whistle of the
oyster

opener, for its advent means that the hosts of the good fish
are moving towards the welcoming coasts once more, that the wind of the south is
unloosened, that greenness will creep to the grass, that birds will seek the
bushes, that song will come to them, and that everywhere a new gladness will be
abroad. By these signs is St. Briget of the Shores
known. One, perhaps, must live in the remote places, and where wind and cloud,
rain and tempest, great tides and uprising floods are the common companions of
day and night, in order to realise the joy with which things so simple are
welcomed. To see the bright sunsweet face of the dandelion once more— an
dealan Dhe, the little flame of God, am bearnan Bhrighde, St. Bride's forerunner — what a joy this is. It
comes into the grass like a sunray. Often before the new green is in the blade
it flaunts its bright laughter in the sere bent. It will lie in ditches and
stare at the sun. It will climb broken walls, and lean from nooks and corners.
It will come close to the sands and rocks, sometimes will even join company with
the sea- pink, though it cannot find footing where later the bind-weed and the
horned poppy, those children of the seawind who love to be near and yet shrink
from the spray of the salt wave, defy wind and rain. It
is worthier the name " Traveller's Joy" than the wild clematis of the autumnal
hedgerows: for its bright yellow leaps at one from the roadside like a smile,
and its homeliness is pleasant as the gladness of playing children.

It is a herald of Spring that
precedes even the first loud flute-like calls of the missel- thrush. When snow
is still on the track of the three winds of the north it is, by the wayside, a
glad companion. Soon it will be everywhere. Before long the milk-white sheen of
the daisy and the moon-daisy, the green-gold of the tansy, the pale gold of the
gorse and the broom, the yellow of the primrose and wild colchicum, of the
cowslip and buttercup, of the copse-loving celandine and meadow-rejoicing
crowsfoot, all these yellows of first spring will soon be abroad: but the
dandelion comes first. I have known days when, after midwinter, one could go a
mile and catch never a glimpse of this bright comrade of the ways, and then
suddenly see one or two or three, and rejoice forthwith as though at the first
blossom on the blackthorn, at the first wild-roses, at the first swallow, at the
first thrilling bells of the cuckoo. We are so apt to lose the old
delight in familiar humble things. So apt to ignore what is by the way, just
because it is by the way. I recall a dour old lowland gardener in a
loch-and-hill-set region of Argyll, who, having listened to exclamations of
delight at a rainbow, muttered, " Weel, I juist think naethin ava' o' thon
rainbows ... ye can see one whenever ye tak the trouble to look for them
hereaboots." He saw them daily, or so frequently that for him all beauty and
strangeness had faded from these sudden evanescent Children of Beauty. Beauty
has only to be perceptible to give an immediate joy, and it is no paradoxical
extravagance to say that one may receive the thrilling communication from " the
little flame of God" by the homely roadside as well as from these leaning towers
built of air and water which a mysterious alchemy reveals to us on the cloudy
deserts of heaven. " Man is surprised," Emerson says, " to find that things near
and familiar are not less beautiful and wondrous than things remote." Certainly
no Gaelic lover of St. Bride's Flower, of the Flower of February, but rejoices
to see its welcome face after the snow and sleet of winter have first sullenly
receded, if only for a time, and to know that St. Bride of the Shores wears it
at her breast, and that when she throws it broadcast the world is become a green
place again and the quickening sunlight a gladsome reality.

In these desolate far isles where
life is so hard, where the grey winds from the north and east prevail for weeks
at a time on the grey tempestuous seas, and where so much depends on such small
things—a little driftwood, a few heaps of peat, a few shoal of fish now of one
kind now of another, a few cartloads of seaweed, a rejoicing sound is that in
truth when the Gille-Bhride is heard crying along the shores. Who that
has heard its rapid whirling cry as it darts from haunt to haunt but will
recognise its own testimony to being " Servant of Breed " (the common
pronunciation of the Gaelic Brighid or Bride) —for does it not cry over and over
again with swift incessant iterance, Gilly - breed, gilly-breed, gilly-breed,
gilly-breed, gilly- breed.

Firm, and round:
Thy breasts are sweet.
Firm, round, and sweet,
So may my butter be:
So may my butter be, O

Briget Sweet!
Safe thy way is, safe, O

Safe, St. Bride:

May my kye come home at even,
None be fallin', none be leavin',
Dusky even, breath-sweet even,
Here, as there, where O

St. Bride thou

Keepest tryst with God in heav'n,
Seest the angels bow
And souls be shriven—
Here, as there, 'tis breath-sweet even

Far and wide—
Singeth thy little maid
Safe in thy shade

Briget, Bride!"

When the first lambs appear, many
are the invocations among the Irish and Hebridean Gaels to good St. Bride. At
the hearth-side, too, the women, carding wool, knitting, telling tales, singing
songs, dreaming — these know her whether they name her in thought, or have
forgotten what was dear wisdom to their mothers of old. She leans over cradles,
and when babies smile they have seen her face. When the cra'thull swings
in the twilight, the

slow rhythm, which is music
in the mother's ear, is the quiet clapping of her hushing hands.
St. Bride, too, loves the byres or the pastures
when the kye are milked, though now she is no longer " the Woman of February,"
but simply " good St. Bride of the yellow hair."

IN the Mazarin Library in Paris is
to be found a copy of a work entitled Brigida Thaumaturga, printed
and published in Paris A.D. 1620. This work is now so rare that a short account
of it may not be uninteresting to the clients of St. Brigid, Patroness of
Ireland, in the twentieth century. Its author is the Most Rev. David Rothe,
Bishop of Ossory. That distinguished man, eminent as a bishop, as a patriot,
and a scholar, was born in Kilkenny in 1568. Having received his early
education in his native city, he proceeded to the Continent, where he made his
studies in philosophy and theology at Douai, and subsequently at Salamanca.
Having obtained the degree of Doctor of Theology at the famous University of
Salamanca, David Rothe visited Rome, whence he returned to Ireland in 1610,
with rank of Apostolic Protonotary, and with a commission from the Holy See to
labour for the restoration of fraternal union amongst the clergy of Ireland.
The success with which he fulfilled his mission was the prelude of still higher
honours. In 1614 Dr. Rothe was appointed Bishop of Ossory, and received
episcopal consecration in Paris. Returning to Ireland he applied himself with
zeal to his Episcopal functions; and on behalf of Primate Lombard, then
resident in Rome, he held diocesan synods in the diocese of Armagh in 1614, and
again in 1618.

But the numerous duties of his
episcopal office were not enough to satisfy the zeal of Dr. Rothe. His moments
of leisure he devoted to literary work, and in 1617 he published the first part
of a valuable work entitled Analecta Sacra, in which he placed on
record, with the authority of a contemporary witness, the constancy of Irishmen
who suffered persecution for the faith in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.
of England. The concluding part of that valuable work was published in 1619.
The entire work was reprinted with an introductory notice in 1884, by an
eminent successor of the author. Dr. Moran, Bishop of Ossory, subsequently
Cardinal-Archbishop of Sydney, whose memory will long survive as a great Irish
scholar, and a great Irish churchman.

While Dr. Rothe was thus engaged the
persecution of Irish Catholics became more violent. The Lord-Deputy, Sir Oliver
St. John, issued an edict ordering the banishment of priests and bishops. With
the object of discovering such persons, the houses of the Catholic gentry were
frequently searched. Dr. Rothe judged it prudent to withdraw before the storm
for a time, and he took up his residence in Paris.

Here, on February 1, 1620, he
delivered a remarkable address in the Irish College in Paris on St. Brigid, the
sainted Patroness of Ireland—an address which was printed the same year with a
dedication to John L'Escalopier, Baron de Saint-Just, President of the
Parliament of Paris, and benefactor of the Irish College in that city. The work
is written throughout in Latin. The title-page is as follows:

'Brigida Thaumaturga, etc.
Brigid the wonder-worker; or a dissertation partly laudatory, in praise of the
Saint, partly archaeological drawn from sacred and from ecclesiastical history,
and partly also hortatory, addressed to the students of the (Irish) Colleges.
In it the miracle of the wood growing green again at the touch of the Virgin
Brigid is explained; and symbolically applied to the ancient intercourse
between France and Ireland, in things sacred, literary and civil. Delivered in
the Irish College in Paris on February I, Feast of the Saint. Published by
Sebastian Cramois, under the Sign of the Storks. Rue Saint-Jacques, 1620.'

The title-page is followed by a
letter of dedication to John L'Escalopier, in which the author refers to the
liberality of that generous man towards the Irish exiles, and assures him that
as he has been their patron, so St. Brigid will be his ('tu patronus illorum,
tibi ilia patrona erit'). The letter of dedication is signed 'D.R.E.O.V.H.’ the
initials of 'David Rothe, Episcopus Ossoriensis, Vice-Primas Hiberniae.' That
the work is due to his pen is expressly mentioned by Lynch in his MS. Lives of
the Bishops of Ireland.

From the dedication we pass on to
the work itself. In the first part the learned author speaks in praise of St.
Brigid. He begins by narrating the miracle of the wood of the altar growing
green at the touch of the Virgin, on the occasion of her religious profession,
and he points out instances of similar miracles in the case of St. Francis of
Assisi and other saints. He then dwells on the rank which St. Brigid holds
amongst the saints of Ireland. As St. Patrick is the head of the hierarchy, and
St. Columba of the monks, so St. Brigid is the head of the virgins of Ireland.
Her life was a model of Christian virtue, especially of faith and charity. Her
sanctity was manifested by numerous miracles performed in favour of the blind,
the lame, lepers, and persons possessed by the devil. Her sanctity, like a
fruitful vine, spread its branches through the whole of Ireland.

In the second part of the work the
author draws a parallel between the virtues of St. Brigid, overflowing, as it
were, upon all who came within the sphere of her influence, and the sanctity of
the Church in Ireland increasing, and then overflowing upon foreign nations, and
especially upon France in the threefold relation of religion, learning, and
civil intercourse.

Starting with the bonds which
connected St. Patrick by blood with St. Martin of Tours, and by education with
St. Germain of Auxerre, he dwells on the religious intercourse between France
and Ireland; and he enumerates the most remarkable of the Irish saints who
lived and laboured in France, especially from the sixth to the twelfth century.
In the reign of Clotaire, Columban exercised a widespread influence and founded
a monastery at Luxeuil, and his footprints may be traced along the banks of the
Seine, the Marne, the Loire, and the Rhone. The work for religion in France,
commenced by Columban, was continued under Dagobert by the sainted brothers St.
Fursey, St. Livinus, and St. Ultan, whose memory still flourished in the
monastery of Perrone. An Irish saint, St. Wirro, was the confessor and adviser
of Pepin d'Heristal. Vincent, a layman, whom the author claims as an Irishman,
was related by marriage to Dagobert. Two Irish priests, Sadochim (or Cardocum)
and Adrian, evangelized Picardy. St. Malo, if not an Irishman, was the pupil of
an Irishman, Albinus. As time rolled on communication between Ireland and
France continued. St. Fiacre shed the lustre of his virtues upon the country
around Meaux, where his shrine was long a centre of pilgrimage, and where he
was honoured in particular as the patron of gardeners.

Nor were holy women wanting in the
list of Irish saints in France. St. Syra, sister of St. Fiacre, and St. Ommana,
both Irishwomen, shed the odour of their virtues around them in French
cloisters. Nor did Frenchmen neglect to honour Irish saints. St. Patrick at
Rouen, St. Malachy at Clairvaux, and St. Laurence at Eu, were the objects of
special veneration and shrines were dedicated in their honour.

Passing from religion to literature,
the author points out what France owes to Ireland. Under Charlemagne two
Irishmen, Clement and Albinus, established on the banks of the Seine a school
which became the cradle of the great University of Paris. Under Charles the
Bald, another Irishman, Scotus Erigena, brought to France a knowledge of Greek
literature and philosophy, which marked him out as the foremost Greek scholar
of the period.

He then laments that while Ireland
was once a fountain pouring forth streams of learning upon Europe, her schools
are now closed through persecution, and her sons compelled to seek education in
foreign lands.

Passing to the intercourse of civil
life, the author points out that even in the days of Tacitus there was frequent
communication between Ireland and the Continent, and the harbours of Ireland
were widely known to traders. In course of time trade was followed by
alliances. Vincent, an Irishman, otherwise called Waldegaire, married
Waldetrude, a relative of King Dagobert. From their union sprang four saints:
St. Landry, subsequently Bishop of Meaux; St. Dentlinus, who died in his
seventh year; St. Aldetrude; and St. Madelberta. St. Landry invited Irishmen to
come to France to aid him in the harvest of souls. The journeys and the
influence of Columban and Gall and Virgil were not without their influence upon
the communication between France and Ireland.

The author also sees another though
a less direct proof of the intercourse between the two countries in the
numerous family names of French origin which are to be met with in Ireland. The
names de la Roche, de la Cource, Nogent, Barneville, Netterville, de Lacy, de
la Blancheville, de la Groose, de St. Leger, S. Salem, Burnell, Boucher,
Verdun, Moucler, Rochfort, de Burgo, Petit, Belleau, are all, at least
remotely, of French origin.

In the third part of the work the
author addresses himself to the Irish ecclesiastical students on the Continent,
and exhorts them to imitate the virtues of St. Brigid and of the other saints
of Ireland. Ireland lies prostrate under persecution; but as the wood of the
altar became green at the touch of St. Brigid, the prosperity of Ireland may
bloom again. That happy restoration, however, must be the work of the young
Levites of Ireland. The author hopes that the day will come when the students
of the period, all lovers of their brethren, will be engaged in missionary work
in Ireland. It will then be said: ‘This one and that one and that other are pupils
of the College in Paris; those others of Douai, and Antwerp, and Tournai; those
others of Salamanca, and Compostella, and Lisbon, not omitting those of
Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Rouen. They are all lovers of the brethren, all angels
of peace, all ambassadors for Christ.' A great door is open to them. As the
spirit of life entered into the dry bones at the words of the prophet, so by
their preaching, religion will be made to flourish again in Ireland. They are
not few in number, but they are few when compared with the multitude of their
adversaries. If they are to succeed in their work they must be united in
charity, and lead a life worthy of their vocation.

The dissertation in praise of Brigida
Thaumaturga is followed by a Latin poem in alternate hexameter and
pentameter verses, in which the author relates how on a voyage from France to
Ireland he was saved from shipwreck through prayer to St. Brigid. Beneath the
poem of Dr. Rothe are printed two verses by J. Ley, in whom we recognize the
founder and first rector of the Irish College in Paris, praying St. Brigid, as
she had saved Dr. Rothe from shipwreck, to protect him from other dangers also.
This interesting ode in honour of St. Brigid runs thus:-

'Brigid, who guidest upon the deep
the fleets that sail for Ireland, our bark prays thee to be her guide.

The south-eastern alternating with
the northern blasts stretches our expanded sails towards the western side.

But ere the shores of Aquitaine,
disappearing below the main, were lost to view;

our vessel lashed by the waves gapes
wide, and a leak admits the entering waters.

The water-filled hold fatigues the
arms of the sailors relieving each other by turns.

As often as the sand glass counts
the hours, the ship's pump pours out the exhaustless burden.

To go back was unsafe, unsafe to
advance.

The sole safety for the wretched was
to offer prayers to God.

We pray, merciful Father, despise
not the prayers of Thy suppliants,

but under Thy guidance direct the
ship's course to the desired port.

Brigid suppliantly prays for those
of Irish birth,

The pious prayer of the Virgin shall
obtain what she asks.

'In danger of shipwreck these verses
were composed in honour of the same Virgin, his Patroness, by her unworthy
client, D. R.'

'Whom Brigid wondrously saved from
the stormy waves.

Him may she protect from dire
enemies, I pray.'

J. Ley.'

The work Brigida Thaumaturga is
followed by an appendix entitled ' De Scriptorum Scotorum nomenclatura a Thoma
Dempstero edita praecidaneum.' The appendix is a reply to a work of the Scotch
writer, Thomas Dempster, who claimed for Scotland most of the Irish saints and
writers. Dr. Rothe states that he wrote his reply chiefly to vindicate for
Ireland the honour of being the country of St. Brigid, whom Dempster attempted
to take away from the plains of Lagenia, and carrying her over Pictish hills
and rocks, to set her down in the woods of Caledonia.' Then taking up Dempster's
list in alphabetical order for the letters A, B, and C, he proves from
authoritative sources that the names claimed by Dempster are, with few
exceptions, either Irish or Welsh. Dr. Rothe's labours in defence of the right
of Ireland to her native saints, did not end with this brief appendix to
the Brigida Thaumaturga. The following years, 1621, he published a
still more complete reply to Dempster in a work published under the title Hibernia
Resurgens, under the pseudonym of 'Donatus Rourk.'

But the devotion of Dr. Rothe to the
sainted Patroness of Ireland manifested itself in a still more practical form.
In 1620, the same year in which he published his Brigida Thaumaturga,
he instituted a Confraternity in Ireland in honour of St. Brigid. The object of
that sodality was to pray through the intercession of St. Brigid for peace and
union in Ireland. For that purpose the members met on the first Sunday of each
month. The Holy See approved of the Sodality, and it quickly spread over the
whole of Ireland to the great spiritual profit of the faithful.

We are not here concerned with the
other events of the life of the great Bishop of Ossory, with his share in the
deliberations of the Confederation of Kilkenny, and his death, in 1650, at the
age of eighty-two. He was a man of great attainments and of great zeal to
promote the honour of the saints of Ireland. He collaborated with Dr.
Messingham in editing the Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum, and that
author makes express mention that the whole dissertation on the conversion of
Ireland, together with remarks on some chapters of Jocelyn, as well as several
paragraphs of the account of St. Patrick's Purgatory in the Florilegium are
from the pen of Dr. Rothe.

He also laboured long in preparing
an elaborate work on the saints of Ireland under the title Hierographia
Hiberniae, which unhappily perished during the siege of Kilkenny by
Cromwell. He also wrote a shorter treatise on Irish places of pilgrimage, Opusculum
de Peregrinationibus Hiberniae.

His treatise Brigida Thaumaturga,
for many reasons, merits to be remembered. It is a monument to the Irish
College in Paris, and the first printed book which issued from it. It is a
monument to the widespread devotion of the Irish at home and abroad towards St.
Brigid in the seventeenth century. It is a monument to the author, whom
Messingham, in his preface to the account of St. Patrick's Purgatory, describes
as

a man of wide information, an
eloquent speaker, a subtle philosopher, a profound theologian, and a celebrated
historian, a zealous reprover of vice, a champion of the liberty of the Church,
the defender of the rights of the nation devoted to the relief of the
sufferings of Ireland, and a diligent promoter of union and peace amongst
ecclesiastics.

The Brigida Thaumaturga is
also a monument to the ecclesiastical culture of the period. It shows a
familiarity with the Scriptures, with the classics, with history and hagiology;
and a mastery of the Latin language in prose and verse. The Irish ecclesiastics
of the period wrote Latin with correctness, ease, and grace. The Carmen
Thalassicum is but one instance. In the Introductory pages of
Messingham's Florilegium there are Latin odes in commendation
of the work from the pens of Eugene Sweeny, Peter Cadill, Hugh Reilly, Edmund
O'Dwyer, Thomas Messingham, J. Colgan, William Coghlin, Patrick Cahill, Roger
Moloy, Laurence Sedgrave, James Delan, and Thomas Guyer, all Irish priests.

Nearly three centuries have passed
since St. Brigid's Feast, 1620. Since that date religious, literary, and civil
intercourse between France and Ireland attained an expansion which Dr. Rothe
could hardly have foreseen. Irish students received their ecclesiastical
formation in France. Irish students frequented the halls, and Irish professors
occupied chairs in the University of Paris. Irish soldiers stood side by side
with Frenchmen on many a hard fought field. Irish vessels traded with France on
a scale undreamt of in the days of the author of the Brigida
Thaumaturga. The resurrection of Ireland, which Dr. Rothe looked forward
to, has taken place; but even now the students of the colleges in Paris,
Salamanca, and Rome are working side by side with the home-trained clergy,'all
lovers of the brethren, all angels of peace.'

Let us hope that, like those who
have gone before them, they will always be full of devotion to 'Brigida
Thaumaturga, the Patroness of Ireland.'

Like that peerless Mother of our
Lord, to whom she has been compared, Brigid was beautiful with the beauty of
Heaven and earth mingled together, with eyes sweet and dove-like, and with a
countenance most soft and pure. She was both lovely to see, as well as perfect,
in heart and in soul. Nor did the lapse of years steal away any single grace or
charm, for her heart and feelings were ever freshened with religious
inspiration. The biographers of this illustrious saint are unmeasured in terms,
used to describe her virtues and merits; but, they do not exaggerate her
praises, however they may dilate on various miracles, attributed to her
powerful intercession. We are told, how this wondrous pearl of virginity
neither deflected to the right or left, but always pursued a just and virtuous
course. She never spoke without blushing, a sign of her great modesty. She
never yielded to carnal illusions; for no person could be more chaste and
continent. She considered her prestige and virtues to have been gifts coming
from Divine Providence. She examined her acquirements and merits, according to
those severe judgments, pronounced by a mind, filled with prudence and true
faith; while, she took little heed of popular applause or flattery. She
considered ill-regulated public opinion and mere human praise, as tending only
to produce vanity and selfishness, or as savouring of a worldly spirit. Her
whole desires consisted in not appearing to be holy, while she aspired to the
most exalted degree of sanctity. And, as Brigid ever willed a most perfect
conformity to the decrees of Heaven, so did Divine mercy bestow on her
countless treasures of grace; for, according to Holy Scripture, to every one
possessing them shall yet be given, and they shall abound, while to those
wanting them, what they seem to possess shall be taken away. So excellent did
Brigid appear in the sight of God, that He was pleased to manifest her sanctity
by the performance of most renowned miracles. These are abundantly instanced,
throughout her acts. Whenever liberality is hoped for, it will usually be fully
tested; and, an opinion of unrestricted and active charity must inevitably draw
together needy and afflicted, towards benevolently-disposed persons. Hence, it
happened, that so many poor and infirm individuals flocked to St. Brigid, not
only from her own locality, but from most distant places. Those were allured by
a report of her virtues and charities, while, they hoped relief under privation
from their various distresses. When our saint had satisfied the wants of one
pauper, she was ready to perform a like charitable office for a petitioner
succeeding; while the same generous disposition was manifested towards all,
without personal favour or exception. However her bounty had been extended to
the whole flock, notwithstanding her charity was still moderated, according to
various necessities; she gave abundantly to those most in need, more
restrictedly to those in middling circumstances, and a little was only
distributed to those needing little. Yet, no gift of hers could be considered
small, when her hands administered relief, and her warm heart became the
prompter of her largesses. Again, she was very humble, and she attended or was
accustomed to the herding of sheep, as an occupation, and to early rising as
conducive to health. This her life proves, and Cuimin of Coindeire states, in
his poem, referring to her great perfections. She spent indeed many years,
diligently serving the Lord, performing signs and miracles, curing every
disease and sickness. Her vigils were incessant, and she watched over those
subjects committed to her charge, with extraordinary care and tenderness. Her
numerous miracles are compared to the grass of the field, because it grows in
such abundance, by one of her many eulogists. Those wonders, recorded in her
various Acts, would seem to confirm such a statement. She is specially ranked
among the friends and disciples of our great Irish Apostle, St. Patrick; and,
among his numerous religious daughters, not one was more distinguished for
great force of character, for high intellectual accomplishments, and for
sublime spiritual gifts.

In further reference to the spring
feature of Saint Brigid I am indebted to Miss Delap for a curious legend from
Valentia Island which, with fine disregard of chronology, makes Saint Brigid a
friend of the Virgin Mary. It is said that when the Virgin was shy about facing
the congregation in the Temple, Saint Brigid procured a harrow, took out the
spikes and putting a candle in every hole, placed it on her head, walked up
before the Virgin and escorted her down again. According to another version,
which it is believed came from the north of Ireland, it was a hoop with lighted
candles which the Saint wore as she danced up the aisle before the Virgin and
down again. For this service Saint Brigid’s Day is the eve of Candlemas or the
Purification of the Virgin.

ST. Brigid, one of the first of our
saints, and the queen of our virgins, shed a lustre and a purity on the ancient
Church of Ireland. Innocent like Eve in the garden before her fall, animated
with strength and fortitude such as Judith had when God nerved her arm and made
her the protection of Israel, endowed with the greatest perfections like the
Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the refuge of all sinners and the mother of many
virtues, St. Brigid was the light and glory of the infant Church, and
contributed in no small degree to the spread of the faith, and to the
observance of virtue among the people.

What St. Patrick was to the whole
Church generally, St. Brigid was to those of her own sex in particular,
instructing and infusing into them the spirit of true religion, and leaving
them the example of perfect virtue. Though St. Patrick was the great founder
and apostle of the Church in this country— though his labours were great and
unceasing—though his missionaries went on all sides, and he himself "
exultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam" still it was impossible for him to
do everything required. The special need which the Church then had, the
Almighty God supplied by raising up St. Brigid, who not only greatly
contributed to the conversion of the people, and to the practice of piety
amongst them, but also infused into many of the women of Ireland the love of
the religious life, and the devotion to the virtues and perfections of the
cloister, which have never since passed away. This was the flame which St.
Brigid lighted up in faithful hearts, which was symbolised by that perpetual
fire burning for many ages at her shrine, which has survived the change of
manners and the lapse of time, and the spirit of which is to-day as rife among
the people as when St. Brigid laboured at her noble mission with so much
success, when God spoke through the wonders of her power, and through the works
of her hands.

1. Her virtues and her miracles.

Consider and admire the inscrutable
ways of that God who is " wonderful in his saints" and who chose a
weak woman to be a tower of strength and a prodigy of virtue. No flesh should
glory in his sight, for he has made the weak to confound the strong, he has
selected a poor virgin, who was an outcast and a wanderer, not only to be an
example of the greatest perfection by the subjugation of her passions, and to
reflect in her life the virtues of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also to
exercise a wonderful influence in leading souls to God, and in bringing them to
the observance of the counsels of the Gospel, and to the highest practice of
religious discipline.

St. Brigid not only excelled in the
ordinary Christian virtues in an uncommon degree, but God gave her gifts and
powers which are bestowed on few. St. Brigid had great humility; she had a
heart full of kindness and compassion; she had the open and melting hand of
charity. Her purity shone above all her other virtues, shunning and flying from
every thing which could wound it in the slightest degree. In this she most
resembled the Blessed Virgin Mary, and hence was she truly called " the
Mary of Erin," because of her angelic purity, and of the perfection of her
divine love.

This holy soul, so full of God's
grace and such a vessel of election, God did not suffer to pass her tranquil
years in the quiet and innocence of her cloister life, and in the strict
observance of holy discipline. God had other designs, and for their
accomplishment in his Church he gave to St. Brigid extraordinary gifts, and
mysterious power. Accordingly, like her Divine Saviour she went about in signs
and wonders. Wherever she went she left the evidence of her merciful
compassion, and she spread around her the gifts and the blessings of God. She
made the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the blind to see, and the dead she
restored to life, until all confessed that God spoke through the mouth of his
servant, and that his power was in her hands.

As our Divine Saviour went through
Palestine, visiting different places, so St. Brigid went about doing good in
different parts of Ireland. She passed her early youth and made the vows of her
religious life at Ussny, under the care of St. Maccaille. She visited the
sainted prelate of Ardagh—St. Mel, who was rich in faith and in many virtues.
St. Patrick, who was her great and sainted friend, she saw on his death bed,
hearing his last prayer, and receiving his last sigh. Many years of her life
she passed in the South, founding, wherever she went, houses of religion, and
maintaining in them the observance of discipline and the practice of virtue,
but it was on the vast plain of Kildare, by the Cell of the Oak, that she fixed
her permanent home, and at the foot of that tower which even now exists, and
which is the memorial of the ancient days and the mystery of our own, she lighted
up the fire of true religion, and spread around far and near the faith and the
love of Jesus Christ in the hearts of the people.

2. Her special mission.

Consider also the noble work and
special mission which God called on her to fulfil. Even at that early period of
the conversion of the island, the Christian religion took such hold, and made
such progress in the hearts of many, that they not only observed the precepts
of the Gospel, but they were also anxious to practise and to observe the
evangelical counsels. Men and women with holy enthusiasm went to the altar, to
give their lives to God as a perpetual sacrifice, and it was in the religious
life, which regulates and sustains this divine ardour, that they found the
fullest gratification of their hopes and wishes.

Inspired by God, St. Brigid
continued, if she did not commence, the conventual institution in Ireland, and
brought it, even in her own time, to a most happy issue, and made it produce
the most wonderful results. Communities of holy virgins, overcoming the
weakness of their sex, and the temptations of the world, sprung up under the hand
of St. Brigid, and living under the rule which she prescribed, served God in
holiness and fear, and made their lives the practice of the perfection and of
the praise of God. This was the seed which St. Brigid sowed in Ireland, which
even in the worst of times has produced the most happy fruits, and which,
thanks be to the Almighty God, the Father of mercies and the giver of every
good gift, is reviving to-day with a strength and power which are worthy of the
best and most noble ages of the faith.

O holy St. Brigid, thou who art the
light, the ornament, and the glory of the Church of Ireland, be the heavenly
patron of its people, and be the especial friend and the protectress of the
priests of the sanctuary. Let those who offer sacrifice to the name of God, be
worthy of their exalted duties. Shew forth in their lives the form of all
perfection and cover them with the robe of holiness. Let them love justice and
hate iniquity. Let their prayer be like incense in the sight of heaven. Let
their doctrine be saving and salutary to the people, and let the odour of their
lives be the delight of the Church of God.

-Ecclesiastical
Meditations Suitable for Priests on the Mission and Students in Diocesan
Seminaries by a Catholic Clergyman (Dublin, 1866), 250-255.

A miracle, which occurred in repairing this church, and
which, Cogitosus thinks should not be passed over in silence, has been placed
on record. When the old door of the left side passage, through which St. Brigid
used to enter the church, had been altered, repaired, and placed on its former
hinges, by artisans, it could not exactly cover the opening as required. A
fourth part of this space appeared exposed, without anything left to fill it ;
and, if a fourth more were added and joined to the height of the gate, then it
might fill up the entire altitude of this reconstructed and lofty passage. The
workmen held a consultation, about making another new and larger door to fill
up this entrance, or to prepare a panel for an addition to the old door, so as
to make it the required size. A principal artisan among the Irish then spoke
:"On this night, we should fervently implore the Lord, before St. Brigid,
that before morning she may counsel us what course we ought to pursue, in
reference to this matter," After these words, he passed a whole night in
prayer, beside St. Brigid's tomb. On the morning he arose. He then found, on
forcing and settling the old door on its hinge, the whole passage was filled,
so that a single chink was not left uncovered, nor in its height was any, even
the least, excess discovered. Thus, it happened, as the whole aperture was
filled, that St. Brigid—as was generally believed—had miraculously extended
that door in height. Nor did any part appear open, except when the door was
moved on entering her church. This miracle, accomplished by Divine omnipotence,
was evidently manifested to the eyes of all, who looked upon the door and the
passage.

ST. BRIDGET was born
at Fochard, in Ulster, soon after Ireland had been blessed with the light of
the faith. It was about the year 453 that she saw for the first time the light
of this world. Her parents, Dubtach and Bronchessa, were both Christians. By
her father she was lineally descended from "Con of the Hundred Battles,"
and her mother, Bronchessa, was descended from the noble house of the
O'Connors.

Bridget spent her
early years in Connaught, and was reared by a nurse who fortunately for her,
was a Christian. She grew up beautiful in appearance, but still more so in her
heavenly virtues, her meekness, humility and sweetness of manner. Her mother
and her nurse carefully instructed her in the Christian religion; and deeply
impressed upon her young mindthe
goodness and mercy of Jesus, and the loving tenderness of His holy mother Mary.
And when told not to offend Jesus or Mary, with childlike simplicity she would
ask how she could please them, and when told, would reply that she would never
do anything to offend them. Thus were the purest impressions made on her infant
mind, and as she grew in years, she became rich in all the Christian virtues.

Bridget, even when a
child, accustomed herself to prayer and pious works, and loved to retire in
solitude to commune with God. She was exceedingly modest, and the least indelicacy
of word or action hurt her tender soul very deeply. No wonder she was admired
and loved by everybody.

Our saint was never
more happy then when she found ways and means to assist the sick and the poor.
Her charity knew no bounds. One time when visiting the sick neighbors, (she was
then only nine years of age) it happened that she had nothing to relieve the
wants of the needy; so she gave them the jewels from a precious sword which the
king of Leinster had given her father, as a token of his good will and liking
for his valiant service. The king heard of this and was angry, and shortly
afterward came to a banquet in her father's house, and calling the little maid
he asked her how she dared to deface the gift of a king in such a manner as she
had done the gift to her father. She fearlessly replied that she had given the
jewels to a better king than he was, "whom” she continued, "finding
in such extremities, I would have given all that my father has, and all that
you have, yea, yourself too and "all you have, were it in my power to give
them, rather than Christ or His children, the poor, should starve." The
king was so touched with her answer that he said to her father that his whole
possessions would not be an equivalent for his daughter; and that he should let
her have her own way in future, and not restrain the extraordinary graces God
had conferred on her. He then gave Dubtach another sword more valuable than the
former, as a mark of the esteem he entertained for him and his daughter.

When Bridget
approached maturity, her father wished that she should wed a certain young man.
Our saint was astonished at such a proposal, and firmly refused, and told her
father that she was resolved to consecrate her virginity to God. All her
relations opposed this resolution for a long time, but seeing that Bridget was
determined they finally consented, and allowed her to choose her state of life.
She made known her intention to several pious virgins, all of whom resolved to
accompany her. Bishop Mel, nephew and disciple of St. Patrick, gave her the
veil. It is said that she made her vows in the sixteenth year of her age.

Bridget's first
community was established at Bridget's-Town or Ballyboy, near Ussna Hill. Her
community soon became celebrated for its piety and charity. The poor flocked
around her, and even the sick came from afar to be cured by St. Bridget's
prayers. Several bishops requested her to establish communities in their
dioceses. She visited Munster and established several convents there. While
there she cured by her prayers a man who had been blind for years. Then she
passed into the county Waterford, and established in the neighborhood of the
present village of Tramore a community of nuns. We next find her in the county
of Limerick establishing convents.

Society in Ireland in
pagan times was divided into freemen and slaves; the former regarded the latter
as beings of an inferior order, and treated them as mere chattels, as is the
case in all slave countries even in our own times. The Catholic Church endeavored
from the beginning to abolish this barbarous custom, and finally succeeded. St.
Bridget labored hard to obtain the freedom of poor culprits, or at least to
mitigate the bitterness of their captivity.

Her numerous miracles
and the respect and veneration entertained for her, gave power to her
influence, which seldom failed in gaining the boon of mercy. St. Bridget was
great in miracles, great in Christian charity. She shares with St. Patrick the
glory and sanctity of being the first to bring the pious young virgins of
Ireland into conventual communities. Her success in this holy work was
wonderful, for soon religious establishments of the kind extended over all the
land. Thus she aided powerfully the work of St. Patrick in christianizing
the inhabitants of Ireland. No wonder that after her death many churches were
dedicated to God under her name. A portion of her relics was kept with great
veneration in a monastery of regular canons at Aburnethi, once the capital of
the kingdom of the Picts. Her body was found with those of SS. Patrick and
Columba, in a triple vault in Down-Patrick, in 1185. The head of St.
Bridget is now kept in the church of the Jesuits at Lisbon.

PRAYER OF THE CHURCH.
Graciously hear us, O God of our salvation: that, as we rejoice in the
festivity of the blessed Bridget, Thy virgin, we may be instructed in the
affection of a loving devotion. Through, etc.

LESSON, (ii Cor. x.
ry-xi. i, 2.) BRETHREN, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he
that commendeth himself is approved; but he whom God commendeth. Would to God
you could bear with some little of my folly, but do bear with me. For I am
jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

EXPLANATION. The
Apostle exhorts the Corinthians to avoid all self-praise and vainglory. To
acknowledge our merits, however, is not wrong, provided we attribute such
merits to the grace of God, giving all honor to Him, who works the good in us.
Self-praise is no proof that we are faithful servants of God; we are no more
than what we are in the eyes of God. St. Paul indeed endeavors to draw the
attention of the Corinthians to his dignity and merits, but does it to honor
God, and to save for Christ those whom he had by their conversion to
Christianity brought to Christ as a spouse to her bridegroom; he speaks of his
dignity, and is jealous to oppose the heretics who tried to lessen his influence
by decrying his merits, and who endeavored to make the Christians abandon the
true faith. When self-praise proceeds from a motive of honoring God and saving
the souls of our neighbors it is allowable.

GOSPEL. (Matt. xxv. i
13.) AT THAT TIME, Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of
heaven shall be like to ten virgins, who, taking their lamps, went out to meet
the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise: but
the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them, but the
wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom tarrying,
they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold, the
bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and
trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for
our lamps are gone out. The wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not
enough for us and for you, go you rather to them that sell, and buy for
yourselves. Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that
were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last
came also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answering,
said: Amen, I say to you, I know you not. Watch ye, therefore, because you know
not the day nor the hour.

Who is the
bridegroom?

Christ the Lord who
has united Himself to His Church, and enters into an intimate union with every
soul of the faithful who keeps His commandments.

Why is the kingdom of
heaven compared to virgins?

Because virginity is
similar to the integrity of holy faith. Only those who preserve the faith
inviolate will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Why does Christ make
mention of “ten" virgins?

The number ten was in
ancient times made use of to express a whole. Here according to SS. Jerome and
Ambrose all the faithful are to be understood. This is evident from the words
of Christ who says of the virgins that they had lamps. The lamp signifies the
light of faith. This holy faith is infused into the soul in baptism.

Who are the wise and
who the foolish virgins?

The wise are all
those of the faithful who not only believe in the doctrine of Christ, but also
live according to the faith, performing good works; the foolish are those
Christians who have indeed the true faith, but not the works according to the
faith.

What is understood by
the oil?

It means good works,
especially works of charity.

Without good works
our faith does not shine forth, is, therefore, not burning light, but dead as
St. James says: "Faith without works is dead."

What mean the vessels
that contain the oil?

Our conscience, which
is the seat and receptacle of good works.

What does His coming
at midnight signify?

It signifies the time
when we least expect; for who would suppose the coming of the bridegroom at
that unexpected hour when every one is asleep! Let us, therefore, be careful
that we are not wanting in faith and good works, let us take warning also from
the words of Christ to be ever ready, as we know not the day nor the hour when
we shall be called upon to appear before our Judge.

-Rev.
Leonard Goffine, Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays,
Holydays and Festivals throughout the Ecclesiastical Year, to which are added
the Lives of Many Saints, (New York, 51st edition, 1880), 687-693

Brigit, and certain virgins with
her, went to Bishop Mel, in Telcha Mide, to take the veil. Glad was he thereat.
For humbleness Brigit staid, so that she might be the last to whom the veil
should be given. A fiery pillar arose from her head to the ridgepole of the
church. Bishop Mel asked :"What virgin is there ?" Answered MacCaille
: "That is Brigit," saith he. "Come thou, O holy Brigit,"
saith Bishop Mel, " that the veil may be sained on thy head before the
other virgins." It came to pass then, through the grace of the Holy Ghost,
that the form of ordaining a bishop was read over Brigit. Mac Caille said that
the order of a bishop should not be(conferred) on a woman." Dixit Bishop
Mel: " No power have I in this matter, inasmuch as by God hath been given
unto her this honour beyond every woman." Hence, it is that the men of
Ireland give the honour of a bishop to Brigit's successor.

In the eighth (day) of the lunar
month (?) was she born. On the eighteenth did she take the veil on her head. On
the twenty-eighth did she go to heaven. Together with eight virgins was Brigit
consecrated. According to the number of the eight beatitudes of the gospel did
she fulfil (her course).

This was one of Brigit's miracles.
When the solemnity of Easter drew nigh, Brigit set up, shortly before
Maunday-Thursday, in a certain place near unto Bishop Mel. Brigit desired,
through (her) charity, to brew ale for the many churches that were around her,
and it was not usual to brew ale at that time. Brigit possessed only one
measure of malt, and Brigit's family had no vessels save two troughs. They made
a tub of one of the two vessels, and they filled the other vessel with the ale,
and the virgins kept taking the ale from Brigit to the churches, and still the
vessel before Brigit remained full. And thus the produce of one measure of
malt, through Brigit's blessing, supplied (?) seven churches of Fir Telach for
Maunday-Thursday and for the eight days of Easter.

When the solemnity of Easter was
fulfilled, Brigit asked her maidens whether they had the leavings of the Easter
ale. Replied the virgins: "God will give food," say they. Then two
maidens came in with a tub full of water. " The Virgin's Son
knoweth," says Brigit, "that there is good (ale) there." She thought
that it was ale. Quicker than speech, as she said that, the water was turned
into choice ale forthwith.

Brigit went to a certain church in
the land of Teffia to celebrate Easter, when Brigit took to washing the feet of
the old men and the feeble folk who were in the church. Four of the sick people
there, were a maimed man, a madman, a blind man, and a leper. Brigit washed the
feet of the four, and they were straightway healed from every disease that was
on them.

Once Brigit was in a house as a
guest, and all went out, save a stripling of fourteen years. He had never
spoken, nor moved foot or hand, and Brigit knew not that he was thus. So then
came guests into the house to Brigit. Said Brigit to the stripling :
"Attend on the guests." "I will do so," saith the
stripling. He got up at once and did service to the guests, and he was quite
whole thenceforward.

Then there came to pass a meeting of
the men of Ireland in Tailtin,in the place where Patrick abode, with a synod of
Ireland's clerics around him. Now Brigit and Bishop Mel went to the meeting,
and a certain woman (also) went thither with a babe on her arm, and she said
that the babe was by Bishop Bron. The Bishop, however, denied that. Brigit
asked the woman by whom the child had been conceived, and told her not to utter
a lie. And the woman answered: It is by Bishop Bron. Then a swelling
straightway filled her tongue, so that she was unable to speak. Brigit made the
sign of the cross over the infant's mouth and asked it : "Who is thy
father ?" The infant answered and said : "A wretched man who is in
the outskirts of the assembly, that is my father," saith he. So in that
wise Bishop Bron was saved through the grace of Brigit.

Brigit went to converse with Patrick
in Mag Lemne while he was preaching the gospel. And Brigit fell asleep at the
preaching. Dixit Patrick : "Wherefore hast thou slept
?" Brigit bent her knees thrice and said : "I saw a vision,"
quoth she. Dixit Patrick : "Tell us the vision."
"I saw," quoth she, "four ploughs in the south-east, and they
ploughed the whole island, and before the sowing was finished the harvest grew
up, and clear wellsprings and shining streams came out of the furrows, and
white garments were round the sowers and the ploughmen. I beheld four other
ploughs in the north, and they ploughed the island athwart, and before the
harvest came again, the oats which they had sown grew up at once and ripened,
and black streams came out of the furrows, and black garments were on the
sowers and on the ploughmen. And I am sorrowful thereat," quoth Brigit. Dixit Patrick
: "Be not in sadness, for good is that which thou beheldest. The first
four ploughs which thou beheldest, those are I and thou. We sow the four books
of the gospel with seed of faith and confession. The harvest which appeared to
thee, that is the perfect faith of those men-folk. The four other ploughs,
those are the false teachers and the liars, and they will overturn the
teachings that we sow, and those we shall not uplift. But we, I and thou, shall
then be in the presence of the Creator."

Then Brigit went to Dunlaing to ask
him to forfeit to her father the sword which he had given to him while he was
in the door-way of the fortress. Then a slave of the slaves of the King came to
speak with Brigit and said to her : "If thou wouldst save me from the
servitude wherein I am, I would become a Christian, and I would serve thee
thyself." Brigit said : "I will ask that of the King." So Brigit
went into the fortress and asked her two boons of the King the forfeiture of
the sword to Dubthach, and his freedom for the slave. Said Brigit to the King:
"If thou desirest excellent children and a kingdom for thy sons and Heaven
for thyself, give me the two boons that I ask." Said the King to Brigit :
"The kingdom of Heaven, as I see it not, and as no one knows what thing it
is, I seek not, and a kingdom for my sons I seek not, for I shall not myself be
extant, and let each one serve his time. But give me length of life in my
kingdom and victory always over the Hui Neill, for there is often warfare
between us. And give me victory in the first battle, so that I may be trustful
in the other fights." And this was fulfilled in the battle of Lochar,
(which he fought) against the Hui Neill.

Once upon a time the King of
Leinster came unto Brigit to listen to preaching and celebration at Easter-day.
After the ending of the form of celebration, the King fared forth on his way
and Brigit went to refection. Lomman, Brigit's leper, said he would eat nothing
until the weapons of the King of Leinster were given to him both spears and
sword and shield. A messenger went from Brigit after the King. From mid-day to
evening a thousand paces until the weapons were given by him, and bestowed on
the leper.

Once upon a time Bishop Ercc and
Brigit were in the land of Leinster. She said to Bishop Ercc : "There is
at present a battle between thy tribe and its neighbours." Dixit a student
of Bishop Ercc's family : "We think not," saith he, "that that
is true." Brigit sained the student's eyes. Said the student: "I see
my brothers a-slaughtering now." Then the student repented greatly.

Once upon a time a certain leper
came to Brigit to ask for a cow. Dixit Brigit to him : "Which wouldst thou
prefer, to carry off a cow or to be healed of the leprosy ?" The leper
said, that he would rather be healed of his leprosy than have the kingdom of
all the world, for every sound man is a king, saith he. Then Brigit made prayer
to God and the leper was healed and served Brigit afterwards.

Now, when Brigit's fame in miracles
and marvels had travelled throughout all Ireland, there came unto Brigit for
their healing two blind men from Britain, and a little leper boy with them, and
they put trust in Bishop Mel to get them healed. Said Brigit : "Let them
stay outside just now till mass is over." Said the Britons (for those
people are impatient), " Thou healedst folk of thy own race yesterday,
though thou healest not us to-day." Brigit made prayer and the three were
healed at once.

Brigit went afterwards with her
virgins to Ardachad of Bishop Mel. The king of Teffia was at a feast near them.
There was a vessel covered with many gems in the king's hand. And a certain
careless man took it out of his hand, and it fell and broke into pieces. That
man was seized by the king. Bishop Mel went to ask for him, but nothing could
be got from the king save his death. However, Bishop Mel asked that the broken
vessel might be given to him by the king, and then he had it and took it with
him to the house wherein was Brigit. And Brigit made prayer to the Lord, and
the vessel was restored in a form that was better than before, and then it was
taken to the king, and the captive was loosed. And Bishop Mel said : "Not
for me hath God wrought this miracle, but for Brigit."

Once upon a time Brigit went to
watch over a certain virgin, namely, Brigit, the daughter of Congaile, who used
to work many miracles. And when Brigit and her virgins were at dinner, Brigit
paused in the middle of the meal, and she said to a certain virgin : "Make
thou Christ's cross over thy face and over thine eyes that thou mayest see what
I see." So then the virgin beheld Satan beside the table with his head
down and his feet up, his smoke and his flame out of his gullet and out of his
nostrils. Said Brigit to the demon that he should answer her : "I cannot,
O nun, be without conversing with thee, for thou keepest God's commandments and
thou art .... to God's poor and to His family." "Tell us," saith
Brigit, "why thou art hurtful in thy deeds to the human race ?"

Said the demon : "That the race
may not attain unto Paradise." Said Brigit to the demon : "Wherefore
hast thou come to us among our nuns ?"

"A certain pious virgin is
here," saith the demon, " and in her company am I." Said Brigit
to the virgin: "Put Christ's cross over thine eyes." And the virgin
beheld at once the hideous monster there, and great fear seized the virgin when
she beheld the demon." Wherefore shunnest thou," saith Brigit,
"the fosterling whom thou hast been cherishing (?) for long seasons
?" Then the virgin repented, and she was healed of the devil of gluttony
and lust that had dwelt in her company.

Once upon a time Brigit went over
Teffia, and there were great hosts along with her. There were two lepers behind
them, who quarrelled on the road. The hand of him that first raised his hand
withers, and then the hand of the other leper withered. Thereafter they
repented and Brigit cured them of their leprosy.

Once upon a time Brigit, with her
virgins, was at Armagh, and two went by her bearing a tub of water. They came
to Brigit to be blessed, and the tub fell behind them and went back over back
from the door of the Rath as far as Loch Lapan. And it brake not, and not a
drop fell thereout. It was well known to every one that Brigit's blessing had
caused this, and Patrick said : "Deal ye the water throughout Armagh and
Airthir." So it was dealt, and it cured every disease and every anguish
that was in the land.

Brigit went into the province of Fir
Ross to loosen a captive who was in manu with the King of Fir Ross. Said Brigit
: "Wilt thou set that captive free for me ?" The King replied :
"Though thou shouldst give me the realm of the men of Breg, I would not give
him to thee. But go not with a refusal," saith the King. "For one
night thou shalt have the right to guard his life for him" Then Brigit
appeared at the close of day to the captive and said to him : "When the
chain shall be opened for thee repeat this hymn, Nunc populus, and turn to thy
right hand and flee." Thus it is done, and the captive flees at the word
of Brigit.

Brigit one day came over Sliab Breg.
There was a madman on the mountain who used to be destroying the companies.
Great fear seized the virgins who were near Brigit, when they saw the madman.
Said Brigit to the demoniac : "Since thou hast gone there, preach the word
of God to us."

"I cannot," he saith,
"be ungentle to thee, for thou art merciful to the Lord's family, to wit,
to the poor and to the wretched." So then said the madman :
"Reverence the LORD, O nun, and every one will reverence thee; love the
LORD, and every one will love thee ; fear the LORD, and every one will fear
thee!" Then the madman went from them and did no hurt to them.

Brigit was once journeying in Mag
Laigen, and she saw running past her a student, namely, Ninnid the scholar.
"What art thou doing, O Sage! " saith Brigit, "and whither art
thou wending (so) quickly?" "To heaven," saith the scholar.
"The Son of the Virgin knoweth," saith Brigit, "that I would
fain fare with thee !" Dixit the scholar : "O
nun," saith he, "hinder me not from my road ; or, if thou hinderest,
beseech the Lord with me that the journey to heaven may be happy, and I will
beseech God with thee that it may be easy for thee, and that thou mayst bring
many thousands with thee to heaven."

Brigit repeated a Paternoster with
him, and he was pious thenceforward ; and Brigit said that neither gallows nor
punishment would be for him ; and he it is that afterwards administered
communion and sacrifice to Brigit.

Brigit went to Bishop Ibair that he
might mark out her city for her. So they came thereafter to the place where
Kildare is to-day. That was the season and the time that Ailill son of
Dunlaing, with a hundred horse-loads of peeled rods, chanced to be going
through the ground of Kildare. Two girls came from Brigit to ask for some of
the rods, and they got a refusal. Forthwith all the horses were struck down
under their loads against the ground. Stakes and wattles were taken from them,
and they arose not until Ailill son of Dunlaing had offered unto Brigit those
hundred horse-loads ; and thereout was built Brigit's house in Kildare. Then
said Brigit -

“........................................
my house

.............................................................

Let the kingship of Leinster for
ever be

From Ailill son of Dunlaing.

On a time came two lepers unto
Brigit to ask an alms. Nought else was in the kitchen save a single cow. So
Brigit gave the single cow to the lepers. One of the two lepers gave thanks
unto God for the cow. But the other leper was displeased, for he was haughty.
"I alone," saith he, "have been set at nought with a cow ! Till
to-day," saith he, "O ye nuns, I have never been counted among
Culdees and amongst the poor and feeble, and I am not to be slighted with a
single cow." Said Brigit to

the lowly leper : "Stay thou
here to see whether God will put anything into the kitchen, and let that
haughty leper fare forth with his cow." Then came a certain heathen having
a cow for Brigit. So Brigit gave that cow to the lowly leper. And when the
haughty leper went on his way he was unable to drive his cow alone, so he came
back again to Brigit and to his comrade, and was reviling and blaming Brigit.
"Not for God's sake," saith he, "bestowedst thou thine offering,
but for mischief and oppressiveness thou gavest to me."

Thereafter the two lepers come to
the Barrow. The river riseth against them. Through Brigit's blessing the lowly
leper escapes with his cow. But the haughty leper and his cow fell into the
stream, and went to the bottom, and were drowned.

Once upon a time the Queen of
Cremthan, son of Ennae Cennselach, came and brought a chain of silver to Brigit
as an offering. The semblance of a human shape was at one of its ends, and an
apple of silver on the other end. Brigit gave it to her virgins ; they stored
it up without her knowledge, for greatly used Brigit to take her wealth and
give it to the poor. Nevertheless, a leper came to Brigit, and without her
virgins knowledge, she went to the chain and gave it unto him. When the virgins
knew this, they said, with much angry bitterness and wrath, "Little good
have we from thy compassion to every one," say they, "and we
ourselves in need of food and raiment." "Ye are sinning," saith
Brigit : "Go ye into the church : the place wherein I make prayer, there
will ye find your chain." They went at Brigit's word. But, though it had
been given to the poor man, the virgins found their chain therein.

Once upon a time Brigit beheld a man
with salt on his back."What is that on thy back ?" saith Brigit:
"Stones," saith the man. "Let them be stones then," saith
Brigit, and of the salt stones were made. The same man again cometh to (or
past) Brigit. "What is that on thy back ?" saith Brigit:
"Salt," saith the man. "It shall be salt then," saith
Brigit. Salt was made again thereof through Brigit's word.

On a time came two lepers unto Brigit
to be healed. Said Brigit to one of the two lepers : "Wash thou the
other."Thus was it done, and he was quite sound forthwith. Said Brigit to
the sound leper: "Bathe and wash thy comrade even as he did service unto
thee." "Besides the time that we have [already] come together,"
says he, "we will never come together, for it is not fair for thee, O nun,
(to expect) me, a sound man with fresh limbs and fresh clean raiment, to wash
that loathsome leper there, with his livid limbs falling out of him."
However, Brigit herself washed the poor, lowly leper. The haughty leper who had
been washen first, then spake, "Meseems," saith he, "that sparks
of fire are breaking through my skin." Swifter than speech he was
straightway smitten with leprosy from the crown of his head to his soles,
because of his disobedience to Brigit.

Another time as Brigit was going to
confess to the bishop there was shewn to her a he-goat's head in the
mass-chalice. Brigit refused the chalice. "Why," saith the
ecclesiastic, "dost thou refuse it ?" "Not hard to say,"
saith Brigit, "this is why I refuse : the head of a he-goat is shewn unto
me in the chalice." The bishop called the gillie who brought the imaltoir
(credence-table?) " Make thy confessions, O gillie," saith the
bishop. "This very morning," saith the gillie, "I went to the
goat-house, and took thereout a fat he-goat, and his flesh I ate." The
gillie did penance and repented. Brigit thereafter went to confession, and saw
not the semblance.

Once upon a time came seven bishops
to Brigit, and she had nought to give them after milking the cows thrice. So
the cows were milked again the third time, and it was greater than any milking.

Once upon a time a certain nun of
Brigit's family took a longing for salt. Brigit made prayer, and the stone
before her she turned into salt, and then the nun was cured.

Once upon a time a bondsman of
Brigid's family was cutting firewood. It came to pass that he killed a pet fox
of the King of Leinster's. The bondsman was seized by the King. Brigit ordered
a wild fox to come out of the wood. So he came and was playing and sporting for
the hosts and the King at Brigit's order. But when the fox had finished his
feats he went safe back through the wood, with the hosts of Leinster behind
him, both foot and horse and hound.

(This) was (one) of Brigit's
miracles. She had a great band of reapers a-reaping. A rain-storm poured on the
plain of Liffey, but, through Brigit's prayer, not a drop fell on her field.

(This) was (one) of Brigit's
miracles. She blessed the table-faced man, so that his two eyes were whole.

(This) was (one) of Brigit's
miracles. Robbers stole her oxen. The river Liffey rose against them. The oxen
came home on the morrow with the robbers clothes on their horns.

(This) was (one) of Brigit's miracles.
When she came to the widow Lassair on Mag Coel, and Lassair killed her cow's
calf for Brigit and burnt the beam of her loom thereunder, God so wrought for
Brigit that the beam was whole on the morrow and the calf was along with its
mother.

Once upon a time Brenainn came from
the west of Ireland to Brigit, to the plain of Liffey. For he wondered at the
fame that Brigit had in miracles and marvels. Brigit came from her sheep to
welcome Brenainn. As Brigit entered the house she put her wet cloak on the rays
of the sun, and they supported it like pot-hooks. Brenainn told his gillie to
put his cloak on the same rays, and the gillie put it on them, but it fell from
them twice. Brenainn himself put it, the third time, with anger and wrath, and
the cloak staid upon them.

Each of them confessed to the other.
Said Brenainn: - Not usual is it for me to go over seven ridges without
(giving) my mind to God." Said Brigit: "Since I first gave my mind to
God. I never took it from Him at all."

While Brigit was herding sheep,
there came a thief unto her and stole seven wethers from her, after having
first besought her (for them). Nevertheless, when the flock was counted the
wethers were found again (therein) through Brigit's prayer.

A certain man of Brigit's family
once made (some) mead for the King of Leinster. When the King came to consume
it, not a drop thereof was found, for Brigit had given all the mead to the
poor. Brigit at once rose up to protect the host, and blessed the vessels, and
they were at once full of choice mead. For everything which Brigit used to ask
of the Lord used to be given to her at once. For this was her desire : to feed
the poor, to repel every hardship, to be gentle to every misery.

Many miracles and marvels in that
wise the Lord wrought for Saint Brigit. Such is their number that no one could
relate them unless her own spirit, or an angel of God, should come from heaven
to relate them.

Now there never hath been any one
more bashful or more modest than that holy virgin. She never washed her hands,
or her feet, or her head, amongst men. She never looked into a male person's
face. She never spoke without blushing. She was abstinent, innocent, liberal,
patient. She was joyous in God's commandments, steadfast, lowly, forgiving,
charitable. She was a consecrated vessel for keeping Christ's Body. She was a
temple of God. Her heart and her mind were a throne of rest for the Holy Ghost.
Towards God she was simple : towards the wretched she was compassionate: in
miracles she was splendid. Therefore her type among created things is the Dove
among birds, the Vine among trees, the Sun above stars.

This is the father of this holy
virgin the Heavenly Father. This is her son Jesus Christ. This is her fosterer
the Holy Ghost: and thence it is that this holy virgin wrought these great
innumerable marvels.

She it is that helpeth every one who
is in straits and in danger. She it is that abateth the pestilences. She it is
that quelleth the wave-voice and the wrath of the great sea. This is the
prophesied woman of Christ. She is the Queen of the South. She is the Mary of
the Gael.

Now when Brigit came to the
ending-days, after founding churches and church buildings in plenty, after
miracles and wondrous deeds in number (like) sand of sea or stars of heaven,
after charity and mercy, she received communion and sacrifice from Ninnid the
Pure-handed, when he had returned from Rome of Latium, and sent her spirit
thereafter to heaven. But her remains and her relics are on earth with great
honour and with primacy and pre-eminence, with miracles and marvels. Her soul
is like the sun in the heavenly City among quires of angels and archangels, in
union with cherubim and seraphim, in union with Mary's Son, to wit, in the
union with all the Holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Ghost.

I beseech the Lord's mercy, through
Saint Brigit's intercession. May we all attain that union in scecula
sceculorum. Amen.

-W.Stokes, ed.and trans., 'On the Life of Saint
Brigit' in Three Middle-Irish Homilies on the Lives of Saints Patrick, Brigit
and Columba (Calcutta, 1877), 50-89.

The holy virgin, Brigit, born in the
province of Leinster, in Ireland, of parents of noble blood and of the
Christian faith, became the mother in Christ of many consecrated virgins. While
she was yet a little child, her father saw in a vision men clothed in white
garments, pouring oil upon her head. As she reached the early years of girlhood
she chose Christ the Saviour as her Spouse, and clung to Him so ardently, from
her inmost heart, as, for His love, to give away all she had to the poor. Her
matchless beauty drew around her a multitude of suitors; and fearing that their
importunity might render impossible her purpose of devoting her life to God in
holy virginity, she prayed that her beauty might be changed into ugliness. Her
prayer was at once heard. One of her eyes became quite swollen, and her whole
face so altered, that all her suitors retired in disgust, leaving her free to
consecrate her virginity to Christ by a solemn vow.

Taking with her three young maidens,
she repaired without delay to Bishop Macheas, a disciple of St, Patrick. The
good Bishop, seeing a pillar of fire over her head, clothed her in a fair
garment and a white mantle; and reciting the Ritual prayers, received her to
holy profession, according to the Canonical form introduced into Ireland by
blessed Patrick. In the course of the ceremony, as she bent her head to receive
the sacred veil, she leant her hand on the wooden altar-step. At the moment,
the dry, seasoned wood became green and fresh; on the instant her eye was
cured, and her whole face recovered its former beauty. In process of time,
her example drew young maidens to embrace the religious life in such numbers as
to cover all Ireland with communities of nuns, of that order over which Brigit
herself presided, and upon which all the rest were dependent.

The virgin's sanctity is attested by
the miracles she wrought in her life time, as well as after death. She
frequently cleansed lepers, and by her prayers obtained cure for people sick of
divers diseases; she gave sight to one blind from his birth. An abandoned woman
sought to father her base-born child upon Bishop Brooney. The Saint, making the
sign of the cross upon the poor baby's lips, made it declare the name of its
true father, thus vindicating the Bishop's character. Filled with the spirit of
prophecy, she foretold things to come as if they were passing before her eyes.

She enjoyed the most intimate
friendship of St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, and foretold the time of his
departure from this world, and the place of his burial. She was present at his
death, and supplied the winding sheet, which she had long and carefully kept
for the purpose, in which his blessed remains were wrapped; and when she came
to give back her beautiful soul to Christ, her Spouse, she was laid in the same
grave with him.

Hi sunt, etc. These are the folk that follow the unpolluted Lamb,
whatsoever way He may wend.

John, son of Zebedee, Jesus
bosom-fosterling, heir of theVirgin, he it is that wrote these words, and that
left them in the Church Christian in memory of the reward and guerdon which God
hath given to the third grade of the Church, namely, to the Virgins, that is,
the following of the unpolluted Lamb.

Inde Johannes, etc. Now this is the parallel part of the declaration by
John, as far as where he previously said in his Gospel (sic) Nemo potest, etc.
There cometh not to any one on earth to make unto the Lord meet praise or
fitting quire-song, save only of a surety one of the all-fullness of either
Church, who hath been brought up in chastity and in virginity, and hath been
redeemed with the price of Christ s blood.

Virgines enim sunt. For those are the virgins assuredly. So on the track of
these words John saith Hi sunt, etc. Nihil enim prodest, etc. It
profiteth not any one to have the flesh a virgin if he be corrupt in
mind. Virginitas enim, etc.

Hoc est enim in Evangelio, etc. For this is in the Gospel, that these are the virgins
that have not oil in their vessels, namely,the virgins that do not keep (to
themselves) the approbation of the Lord, but (make) boasting before every one.

Haec est falsa castitas, etc.

Now Patriarchs fulfilled the
testament of virginity in prefiguration of Christ. And apostles and disciples
of Jesus Christ son of the living God, fulfilled it also, the martyrs and
anchorites of the Lord, the saints and holy virgins of the world besides, even
as the holy, venerable virgin fulfilled it, she that hath a festival and a
commemoration on the occasion of this season and this time, to wit, sancta
virgo Dei Brigida, for then it is that the Christians celebrate the feast
and festal day of this holy Brigit, to wit, the Kalends of February as to the
day of the solar month.

Here then is related in the churches
of the Christians some what of her miracles and marvels, and of her birth
according to flesh.

Brigit (was the) daughter of
Dubthach, son of Demre (or Dreimne), son of Bresal, son of Den, son of Conla,
son of Artair (?) son of Art Corb. son of Cairpre the Champion, son of Cormac,
son of Oengus the Dumb, son of Eochaid Find Fuathnart, son of Fedlimid the
Lawgiver, etc.

Now that Dubthach son of Demre
bought a bondmaid, named Broicsech, daughter of Dallbronach of Dal Conchobair
in the south of Bregia. Dubthach united himself in wedlock to her, and she
became pregnant by him. Thereafter Dubthach's consort grew jealous of the
bondmaid (Brechtnat Blaithbec was the name of Dubthach's wife), and the queen
said "unless thou sellest this bondmaid in far-off lands, I will demand my
dowry of thee, and I will go from thee." Dubthach did not at all desire to
sell the bondmaid.

Dubthach went, and his bondmaid
along with him, in a chariot past the house of a certain wizard. When the
wizard heard the noise of the chariot, this he said : "See, O gillie, who
is in the chariot, for this is the noise of a chariot under a king. Said the
gillie, “Dubthach is therein." Then the wizard went to meet the chariot,
and he asked whose (was) the woman who was biding in the chariot. Said
Dubthach, That is a bondmaid of mine," quoth he, Maithgen was the wizard s
name, and from him Ross Maithgen is named. The wizard asked by whom the
bondmaid was pregnant. "By Dubthach." says the bondmaid. Said the
wizard, “Marvellous will be the offspring, the like of her will not be in (all)
the land.

Said Dubthach, " My consort did
not allow me not to sell this bondmaid."

Said the wizard through his gift of
prophecy, "Thy wife's seed shall serve this bondmaid's seed, for the
bondmaid will bring forth a daughter, noble, revered, before the men of the
earth. As sun shineth among stars, (so) will shine the maiden's deeds and
merits."

Dubthach and the bondmaid rejoiced
thereat, (and) Dubthach said, "Since I have (already) sons, I should like
to have a daughter." Then Dubthach went (back) to his house and his
bondmaid with him. The wife however was still jealous of the bondmaid.

Great was the honour in which God
held this girl. For two bishops of the Britons came to her from Alba to
prophesy of her and to sanctify her, to wit, Bishop Mel and Melchu nomina
eorum. So Dubthach gave them a welcome and the bondmaid served them and tended
them. Now Dubthach's consort was mournful thereat, and Bishop Mel asked her the
cause of her sadness. Said the wife, "Because Dubthach hath distinguished
his bondmaid from me."Said Bishop Mel, " Thus shall it be as thou
sayest, for thy seed shall serve the seed of the bondmaid, but her seed shall
be profitable unto thy seed." She was angry with him. So the bishop asked
her," How many sons hast thou ?" Said the wife,"Six sons."
Dixit Bishop Mel, " Thou shalt bear the seventh son, and he will be the
worst of them, and the other sons will be bad unless the bondmaid's seed
ennobles them, and thou thyself shalt be accursed, because of the cruelty which
thou shewest to the bondmaid."

After these words there came to
Dubthach's house, out of the border of Hui-Maiccuais, another wizard who had
been gathering treasures. Now when the wizard knew that the bondmaid was the
cause of the anger of Dubthach's wife, he said, "Wilt thou sell the
bondmaid?" "I will sell," saith Dubthach. Quoth the
bishops,"Sell the bondmaid, but sell not the child that is in her
womb." Thus did Dubthach.

The wizard went forth and the
bondmaid with him. The wizard with his bondmaid arrived at his house.

A certain poet came out of the
province of Conaille to the house of the wizard aforesaid in order to buy a
slave or a bondmaid. The wizard sold him the bondmaid, but sold him not the
offspring. Then it came to pass that the wizard made a great feast, and bade
the king of Conaille to the feast, and it was then the time for the king's wife
to bear a child. There was a prophet along with the king, and a friend of the
king's asked him what hour would be lucky for the queen to bring forth the
royal offspring. Dixit propheta," The child that shall be
brought forth to-morrow at sunrise shall overtop every birth in Ireland."
Now the queen's travail came on before that hour, and she brought forth a dead
son. Then the poet asked the prophet what hour would be lucky for the bondmaid
to bring forth? Said the poet, "The child that shall be brought forth
to-morrow at sunrise, and neither within the house nor without, shall surpass
every child in Ireland."

Now on the morrow, at sunrise, when
the bondmaid was going with a vessel full of milk in her hand, and when she put
one foot over the threshold of the house inside and the other foot outside,
then did she bring forth the girl, to wit, Brigit.

The maid-servants washed the girl
with the milk that was in her mother's hand. Now that was in accord with the
merits of Saint Brigit, to wit, with the brightness and sheen of her chastity.
On a Wednesday and in the eighth moon was Brigit born in Fothart Murthemni.
Still, to the south-east of the church is the flagstone whereon Brigit was
born, and the girl was taken straightway after her birth to the queen's dead
son, and when Brigit's breath came to him he swiftly arose out of death.

Then the wizard and the bondmaid
with her daughter went into the province of Connaught: her mother (was) of
Connaught, her father out of Munster, her abode with the Connaughtmen.

On a certain day the bondmaid went
to her island, and covered up her daughter in her house. Certain neighbours saw
the house wherein was the girl all ablaze, so that a flame of fire was made of
it from earth to heaven. But when they went to rescue the house, the fire
appeared not, and this they said, that the girl was full of the Holy Spirit.

One day the wizard went with his
bondmaid to visit the cattle. The cow-dung (?) that lay before the girl was
seen ablaze. But when the wizard and the bondmaid stretched down their hands to
it, the fire appeared not.

Once upon a time when the wizard was
sleeping, he saw three clerics in white garments, to wit, three angels of heaven,
and they poured oil on St. Brigit s head, and they, completed the order of
baptism. And the third cleric said to the wizard " This shall be the name
of this holy maiden : Sancta Brigita". The wizard arose, and
told what he had beheld.

Now this holy virgin, namely,
Brigit, was nourished with food and like to her compeers (?) besides, and she
rejected the guidance of the, wizard and used to give it (the food) away. The
wizard meditated on the girl, and it seemed to him that it was because of the
impurity and the corruption of his food. Then he enjoined a white red-eared cow
to give milk to Brigit, and he enjoined a faithful woman to milk the cow. The
virgin took her fill of that.

That holy virgin was reared till she
was a handmaiden, and everything to which her hand was set used to increase and
reverence God. Every store of food which she saw and served used to grow. She
bettered the sheep: she tended the blind: she fed the poor.

Brigit was minded to go and watch
over her fatherland. And the wizard sent messengers to Dubthach, that he might
come for his daughter. The messengers declared unto Dubthach the maiden's
miracles and many wonders. Then Dubthach came, and the wizard bade him welcome,
and gave him his daughter free.

Then they went to their country,
Dubthach and his daughter Brigit, in the province of Offaly and there did
Brigit work a wondrous miracle, to wit, her fostermother was in weakness of
disease, and the fostermother sent the holy Brigit and another maiden with her
to the house of a certain man named Boethchu, to ask him for a draught of ale.
He refused Brigit. Then Brigit filled a vessel out of a certain well, and
blessed it, and (the water) was turned into the taste of ale, and she gave it
to her fostermother, who straightway became whole thereby. Now when they went
to drink the banquet not a drop thereof was found.

This (was another) of Brigit's
miracles : while she was herding Dubthach's swine, there came two robbers and
carried off two boars of the flock. They fared over the plain, and Dubthach met
them and bound on them the erc (mulct) of his swine. Said
Dubthach to Brigit, "Is the herding of the swine good, my girl?"
saith he. Dixit Brigit to Dubthach, "Count thou the
swine." Dubthach counted the swine, and not one of them was wanting.

Guests, then, came to Dubthach.
Dubthach sundered a gammon of bacon into five pieces, and left them with Brigit
to be boiled. And a miserable, greedy hound came into the house to Brigit.
Brigit out of pity gave him the fifth piece. When the hound had eaten that
piece Brigit gave another piece to him. Then Dubthach came and said to Brigit :
"Hast thou boiled the bacon, and do all the portions remain?"
"Count them," saith Brigit. Dubthach counted them, and none of them
was wanting.

The guests declared unto Dubthach
what Brigit had done."Abundant," saith Dubthach, " are the
miracles of that maiden." Now the guests ate not the food, for they were
unworthy (thereof), but it was dealt out to the poor and to the needy of the
LORD.

Once upon a time a certain faithful
woman asked Dubthach that Brigit might go with her into the plain of the
Liffey, for a congregation of the synod of Leinster was held there. And it was
revealed in a vision to a certain holy man who was in the assembly, that Mary
the Virgin was coming thereto, and it was told him that she would not be
(accompanied) by a man in the assembly. On the morrow came the woman to the
assembly, and Brigit along with her. And he that had seen the vision said
"This is the Mary that I beheld" saith he to Brigit. The holy Brigit
blessed all the hosts under the name and honour of Mary. Wherefore Brigit was
(called) the Mary of the Gael thenceforward.

On a time it came into Brigit's
mind, through the grace of the Holy Ghost, to go and see her mother who was in
bondage. So she asked her father's leave, and he gave it not. Nevertheless, she
went without permission from Dubthach. Glad was her mother when she arrived.
Toil-worn and sickly was the mother and she (Brigit) for her mother, and took
to bettering the dairy. The first churning that Brigit had she divided the
fruit thereof into twelve shares in honour of the twelve apostles of the
Creator, and she set the thirteenth portion so that it was greater than every
(other) portion in honour of Jesus Christ, and she gave them all then to the
poor of the Lord. Now the wizard's herdsman marvelled at the ordering that
Brigit gave the butter. Then said Brigit:"Christ with his twelve apostles
preached to the men of the world. In His name it is that I feed the poor, for Christ
is in the person of every faithful poor man."

The charioteer (that is the
herdsman) went to the wizard's house, and the wizard and his wife asked him
"hath the virgin well cared for the dairy?" And the charioteer (i.e.,
the herdsman) said "I am thankful anyhow, and the calves are fat" for
he durst not carp at Brigit in her absence. The charioteer took with him a
firkin(?), eight fists in height. Said the charioteer to Brigit :"The
wizard will come with his wife to fill this firkin with the butter of the
dairy." "They are welcome," saith Brigit. The wizard and his
consort came to the dairy, and beheld the calves fat. And Brigit made them
welcome and brought them food. Then said the wizard's wife to Brigit : "We
have come to know whether that which hath been entrusted to thee hath profited.
Of butter what hast thou?" She had none in readiness, except the making of
one churning and a half making, and she first brought the half. The wizard s
wife mocked thereat and said : "This quantity of butter," says she,
"is good to fill the big firkin that I have" "Fill your
firkin" saith Brigit, "and God will put butter into it."

So she kept going still into her
kitchen and carrying out of it a half making at every journey, for God did not
wish to deprive her of honour, so in that wise the firkin was filled. And this
is what she repeated on going into her kitchen -

O God, O my Prince

Who canst do all these things,

Bless, O God (a cry unforbidden),

With thy right hand this kitchen !

May Mary's Son, my Friend, come

To bless my kitchen !

The Prince of the world to the
border,

May we have abundance with Him !

The wizard and his consort venerated
the Lord because of the miracle which they beheld; wherefore then said the
wizard to Brigit: "The butter and the kine that thou hast milked, I offer
them to thee. Thou shalt not abide in bondage to me, but serve thou the Lord”.
Brigit answered him and said: "Take thou the kine and give me my mother's
freedom." Said the wizard: "Not only shall thy mother be freed,(but)
the kine shall be given to thee, and whatsoever thou shalt say (that) will I
do." Then Brigit dealt out the kine unto the poor and the needy of God.
The wizard was baptized and was faithful, and accompanied Brigit from that time
forth.

Then came Brigit, and her mother
with her, to her father's house. Thereafter Dubthach and his consort were
minded to sell the holy Brigit into bondage ; for Dubthach liked not his cattle
and his wealth to be dealt out to the poor, and that is what Brigit used to do.
So Dubthach fared in his chariot, and Brigit along with him. Said Dubthach to
Brigit :"Not for honour or reverence to thee art thou carried in a
chariot, but to take thee to sell thee, and to grind the quern for Dunlang
MacEnda, King of Leinster.” When they came to the King s fortress, Dubthach
went in to the King and Brigit remained in her chariot at the fortress door.
Dubthach had left his sword in the chariot near Brigit. A leper came to Brigit
to ask an alms. She gave him Dubthach's sword. Dixit Dubthach to the King: "Wilt
thou buy a bondmaid, namely, my daughter?" says he. Dixit Dunlang:
"Why sellest thou thine own daughter ?" Dixit Dubthach
: " She stayeth not from selling my wealth and giving it to the
poor." Dixit the King : "Let the maiden come into
the fortress." Dubthach went for Brigit and was enraged against her,
because she had given his sword to the poor man. When Brigit came into the
King's presence, the King said to her : "Since it is thy father's wealth
that thou takest, much more, if I buy thee, wilt thou take my wealth and my
cattle and give them to the poor ?" Dixit Brigit:
"The Son of the Virgin knoweth if I had thy might with (all) Leinster, and
with all thy wealth I would give (them) to the Lord of the Elements." Said
the King to Dubthach : "Thou art not fit on either hand to bargain about
this maiden, for her merit is higher before God than before men." And the
King gave Dubthach for her an ivory-hilled sword, et sic liberata est
sancta virgo Brigita captivitate.

Shortly after that came a certain
nobleman unto Dubthach to ask for his daughter (in marriage). Dubthach and his
sons were willing, but Brigit refused. Said a brother of her brethren named
Beccan unto her : "Idle is the fair eye that is in thy head not to be on a
pillow near a husband."

"The Son of the Virgin
knoweth," says Brigit, "it is not lively for us if it brings harm
upon us." Then Brigit put her finger under her eye, and drew it out of her
head till it was on her cheek ; and she said : "Lo, here for thee is thy delightful
eye, O Beccan !" Then his eye burst forthwith. When Dubthach and her
brethren beheld that, they promised that she should never be told to go unto a
husband. Then she put her palm to her eye and it was quite whole at once. But
Beecan's eye was not whole till his death.

Said Dubthach to Brigit : "O
daughter, says he, "put a veil on thy head. If thou hast dedicated thy
virginity to God, I will not snatch it from Him." Deo gratias,
says Brigit.